Thai film bags prestigious Deauville award
"Sang Sattawat" (Syndromes and a Century), a Thai film by acclaimed director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, last Sunday bagged the best picture prize at the Ninth Deauville Asian Film Festival in France.
"Sang Sattawat", which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last year, is the first local film to receive the Lotus du Meilleur Film-Grand Prix award. It edged out other selected Asian films including Korea's "The King and the Clown" and another Thai film that ran in the main competition, "Dek Hor" (Dorm). The feature is the latest work of the director who won the prestigious Prix du Jury award at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2004. Like his earlier titles, "Syndromes" comes in two parts and loosely tells the story of ordinary lives in a hospital. The first half depicts lives in an upcountry hospital while the second part shifts to modern hospital life. The festival also offers a prize for action films. Thai films have emerged victorious before at this festival, like "Ong Bak", which snared the Best Action Asia Film Award in 2004, Kongdet Jaturanrasamee's drama "Cherm" (Midnight My Love) took Best Screenplay and Wisit Sasanatieng scored the critic's prize for "Mah Nakorn" (Citizen Dog) in 2005. "Sang Sattawat" will be released here on April 19 only at Paragon Cineplex and Esplanade Cineplex.
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