Stirring up a cinema potion

The World Film Festival of Bangkok brews up a fresh batch of documentaries, features and shorts for its ninth edition next month

Floodwaters may be threatening Bangkok but plans are still afloat for this year's World Film Festival of Bangkok, running from November 4 to 13 at Paragon Cineplex and Esplanade Cineplex Ratchadaphisek, screening 84 movies, among them acclaimed shorts, documentaries and narrative features.

"Cinema Potion No 9" is the theme for the festival's ninth edition, taking inspiration from a 1950s pop song as well as perfume.

"It represents the fascinating attraction of the art film world, where the audience can experience the delicate sense of emotion rather than relying on the eyes and ears alone," says festival director Kriengsak "Victor" Silakong.

The programme is divided into five categories: Cine Latino, Cinema Beat, Doc Feast, Short Wave and Asian Contemporary.

And in what has become a tradition for the World Film Festival, it has a strong slate of Thai independent films, with local premieres of prestigious titles that were selected for the recent Venice and Busan fests.

The opener will be "I Carried You Home" ("Padang Besar") by indie director Tongpong Chantarangkul. Premiering earlier this month in the New Currents competition at Busan, it's about a pair of estranged sisters who find a way to bring the soulless body of their dead mother back home.

Must-sees are the three Thai films screened at last month's Venice fest: Rirkrit Tiravanija's "Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbours", the story of an old man in rural Chiang Mai; "Tae Phiang Phoo Diaw" ("P-047"), a wicked comedy by Kongdej Jaturanrasmee; and "Passing Through the Night", a short by Wattanapume Laisuwanchai.

A highlight of the Asian section is the Indonesian story of homosexuality, "Lovely Man", about a young woman growing up in the countryside with strong Islamic values who discovers that her long lost father is a transvestite working on the streets of Jakarta.

The Doc Feast serves up the first 3D movie by German filmmaker Werner Herzog, who took his cameras into "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams" for a mesmerising look at the ancient murals in a cave in southern France.

This year the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs joins the festival for the first time with the American Documentary Showcase, which includes "One Lucky Elephant", "Corner Plot", and "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front". There's also "Make Believe", about the quirky world of teen magicians, and that film's director, J Clay Tweel, will be in town for the festival.

There's also the Thai documentary "The Cheer Ambassador", which follows the success of Bangkok University's cheerleading team, winners of the recent World Championship Competition.

Cinema Beat, covering acclaimed world films, includes "A Screaming Man", which won the Jury Prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival. The drama from Chad is about an ageing hotel swimming-pool attendant who's demoted to security guard and sees his son promoted into his old job.

The festival also joins the 50th anniversary of the Cannes Critic's Week with screenings of "Boy Meets Girl" (1994), "Walkover" (1965), "Little Jerusalem" (2005) and this year's winner "Las Acacias".

Another special programme is a package of films from the Autism Awareness Association. It includes Jet Li's drama "Ocean Heaven", in which he forgoes his usual martial-arts action to portray a terminally ill father trying to teach his autistic son to survive on his own. Li collaborated on the film with cinematographer Christopher Doyle and director Xiao Lu Xie; Jay Chou sings the theme song.

The closer is "Total Balalaika Show", a musical documentary by cult Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, in a festive outdoor screening at the Crystal Design Centre on Praditmanutham Road. The rarely shown 1994 film captures a Helsinki concert by the Finnish rockabilly band the Leningrad Cowboys and the Russian army's Alexandrov Ensemble, which drew 70,000 people to celebrate the end of the Cold War.

Another prominent director on the world scene will be honoured with this year's Lotus Award - Hungarian director Bela Tarr, who is known for his stark black-and-white imagery. He'll be here to receive the award and meet the audience for a screening of his latest work, "Turin Horse", which recalls the incident in 1889 when German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse while travelling in Turin, Italy. He tossed his arms around the horse's neck to protect it then collapsed to the ground. In less than one month, Nietzsche would be diagnosed with a serious mental illness that left him bedridden and speechless until his death 11 years later. Tarr is left to ponder: Did the whipping cause Nietzsche's collapse?

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