Soon-ya kal

SCREENINGS

Monday, 07.10., 3.30 pm, kinoeins
Tuesday, 08.10., 8.00 pm, kinoeins

“Ruling the country is for soldiers, not civilians” is a recurring statement in Thunska Pansittivorakul’s und Harit Srikhao’s documentary about the rise of nationalism in Thailand. The film’s title is a reference to Walter Benjamin’s notion that nationalist identities always develop in “empty time”, where people share a “homogeneous consciousness”. Without commentary, the film traces the causes of rising nationalism in Thailand.

The filmmakers shot HOMOGENOUS, EMPTY TIME between the 2014 military coup and the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in October 2016, as the military leaders consolidated their grip on society and jailed countless political opponents. Different episodes shed light on various facets of Thai and Buddhist nationalism as practiced by the clergy and the boundless adoration of the king. Young men in boarding schools and military academies are drilled for their future tasks. Their conversations reveal chauvinistic and nationalist ideologies. They are opposed by civil society activists whose room for maneuver is increasingly narrow.

THUNSKA PANSITTIVORAKUL, HARIT SRIKHAO

Thunska Pansittivorakul was born in 1973 in Bangkok, Thailand, and graduated in Art Education from Bangkok University. His second feature-length documentary, Happy Berry, won the Grand Prize at the 4th Taiwan International Documentary Festival in 2004. In 2007, he received the Silpathorn Award from the The Ministry of Culture’s Office of Contemporary Arts. In 2012, he founded the production company Sleep of Reason Films. He also teaches at the department of film at Bangkok University. His first fiction film, Supernatural (2014), had its world premiere at IFFR. He collaborated with Harit Srikhao on the documentaries sPACEtIME and Homogeneous, Empty Time.

Harit Srikhao was born in Thailand in 1995. He first started playing with cameras at the age of thirteen and was selected to attend the Angkor Photo Workshop by Antoine D’Agata, a renowned French photographer, at age 16. He combines documentary and fiction photography, often with the theme of a broken childhood. Srikhao’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He collaborated with Thunska Pansittivorakul on the documentaries sPACEtIME (2015), Srikhao’s debut film, and Homogeneous, Empty Time.

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