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Unlike any reporting Suthichai Yoon has ever done, "Echo from the Well: I Can Hear the Mekong Weep" screens tomorrow as part of the World Film Festival of Bangkok.

The documentary not only gives voice to the people living along the length of the river, it affords The Nation's founder and group chief editor an opportunity for self-discovery.

Director Pipope Panichapak-di has stitched into the film glimpses of Suthichai's childhood as they journey from the Mekong's source in Tibet to its mouth in Vietnam.

"But this isn't Suthichai's biography," says Pipop. "It's more Suthichai's transformation."

What the young man never understood, he learned on this late-life odyssey.

Originally broadcast in 10 episodes on the Channel 9 show "Cheepajorn Loke", the documentary has been revamped as a 90-minute documentary feature about the way the people of six nations live in peaceful co-existence, linked by the benefits and challenges of the Mekong.

Well now

The "well" of the movie's title refers to communal sharing in a sustainable, collectively managed manner. Suthichai picked up on the symbolism of the well during the film crew's visit to Luang Prabang in Laos, where he spoke to people about China damming the river upstream.

Suthichai recalled his childhood days on a rubber plantation, when all the water came from a single, shared village well. Everyone helped maintain it, and no one took more water than his due.

This notion, however, doesn't apply to the Mekong.

Having identified the problems facing the river, the film also offers tangible proposals for its survival as a viable waterway and resource.

Pipop says the documentary employs Nation-style journalism, "but it's not too serious or too artistic".

"I believe this film can entertain an audience as well as any other."

 HEAR THE 'ECHO'

>> "Echo from the Well: I Can Hear the Mekong Weep" is showing at 9.45 tomorrow night at Paragon Cineplex.

>> It's part of the World Film Festival of Bangkok, which runs until Sunday.

 >> Watch the trailer at here.