Latest news with #CriticsWeek
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
A Useful Ghost: Recognised in Cannes, Thai director hopes film stirs political debate at home
When Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke became the first Thai director to win the Critics Week's Grand Prize in May, he paid an unusual tribute. 'I would like to dedicate this award to all the ghosts in Thailand,' he told the audience. Ratchapoom's film, A Useful Ghost, tells the story of a man whose wife dies after falling ill from dust pollution, and whose spirit returns by possessing a vacuum cleaner. It is a quirky story full of symbolism and dark humour that explores power and political oppression in Thailand. 'One of the main intentions for the film would be [to talk about] how we deal with injustice in the past,' says Ratchapoom. 'There's so many people who suffered, who got punished, who disappeared,' he adds, referring to Thailand's turbulent political history, marked by military coups, protests and deadly crackdowns. A Useful Ghost's success comes at a time of increased optimism about Thailand's film industry. Domestic productions are increasingly driving box office sales, claiming a greater share of ticket sales than Hollywood movies, and achieving success abroad. This includes the 2024 release of How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, which broke records for Thai film in neighbouring countries, and became the first Thai film shortlisted for the international feature film at the Oscars. The Thai government, keen to foster the country's film sector, has launched a $6.4 million film fund to support productions. Censorship rules are also being relaxed - though content that may affect the monarchy remains prohibited. The powerful royal family is shielded from criticism by a strict lese majesty law, which carries a jail sentence of up to 15 years. Ratchapoom says he is unsure what kind of reaction his film will generate when it premiers in Thailand. 'I think it will cause some discussion,' he said. The film touches on history some would prefer to forget but which, over recent years, younger people have grown increasingly keen to uncover. 'Trying to unearth what is censored or suppressed is one way to fight the authoritarian,' said Ratchapoom. 'History is one of the battlefields.' Ratchapoom, 38, grew up in a Thai Chinese family in Bangkok, in a household full of film. His father, who had a small business, was obsessed with watching movies, mostly from the US and Hong Kong. Ratchapoom would pour over his dad's film magazines in his spare time, and seek out international releases at pirate DVD shops in Bangkok's Chatuchak market. He went on to study film at Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, and worked as a TV script writer before gaining international recognition with his short film Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall, about a transgender sex worker who goes undercover as a spy, which won the Junior Jury award at Locarno film festival in 2020. Ratchapoom began writing A Useful Ghost in 2017, three years after the military seized power in a coup, arresting its critics, and pressuring news outlets into self-censorship. The film's obsession with memory and mind control is inspired by a creeping trend that emerged under the junta: the destruction of monuments commemorating the 1932 revolution, when the absolute monarchy was overthrown and democracy introduced to Thailand. One plaque, which had laid on the ground in Bangkok for decades, was replaced in 2017 with a new monument that read: 'To love and respect the Buddhist trinity, one's own state, one's own family, and to have a heart faithful to your monarch, will bring prosperity to the country'. In A Useful Ghost the destruction of monuments creates dust, a reference to Thailand's continued air pollution crisis. But dust is also a symbol for 'powerless people who are voiceless', said Ratchapoom. Thai filmmakers have a long history of using metaphors and symbolism to allude to sensitive political topics. It wasn't until the pandemic that Ratchapoom was able to put together the first draft of the screenplay. By then, youth-led pro-democracy protests had filled the streets, demanding the removal of the former junta leader, and then prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, and breaking a major taboo to make an unprecedented call for reforms of the country's powerful monarchy. Protest leaders proclaimed that the 'ceiling had been lifted'; the unspeakable was now being said. At the time, Ratchapoom wondered if his own film would appear old-fashioned, given how outspoken younger generations had become. Ironically, in the past few years, such expansions of freedom of expression have been reversed, he said, adding: 'Suddenly, it's not so obsolete. The ceiling has been lowered again.' Many protest leaders are in prison, facing charges or in exile. Thailand is no longer ruled by former military generals, following elections in 2023, but Ratchapoom does not feel hopeful about Thailand's politics. Under the junta, there was at least a sense that 'there's every reason to fight, to resist', he said. Such momentum has dissipated. He does, however, feel more hopeful about the state of Thailand's film industry. 'I believe that in the next few years there will be more exciting projects, films or series coming off Thailand,' he said. The film's premier in Thailand and elsewhere is yet to be confirmed. Ratchapoom hopes it will open fresh debate. 'I hope these things that I talk about - the silenced and suppressed past, the injustice in the past – could be brought up or unearthed and people will start like talking about it again.'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Netflix Takes A Bulk Of The World On Shih-Ching Tsou's Cannes Movie ‘Left-Handed Girl'
EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has acquired most of the global rights to Shih-Ching Tsou's Cannes' Critics Week movie Left-Handed Girl. The movie, produced by and co-written by 4x Anora Oscar winner Sean Baker won the Gan Foundation Award as well as the Prix du Rail d'Or following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. More from Deadline Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears Talks 'Pillion' Acting Debut & "Shocking" NSFW Sex Scene With Alexander Skarsgård: "My Jaw Was On The Floor" Ollie Madden Exiting Film4/Channel 4 To Join Netflix As Director Of UK Film; Farhana Bhula & Gwawr Lloyd Upped At UK Broadcaster Netflix EMEA Chief Puts 'Mr Bates' Debate To Bed: "We Absolutely Would Have Commissioned It In The UK" The Mandarin and Taiwanese language movie follows a single mother and her two daughters who relocate to Taipei to open a night market stall, each of them navigating the challenges of adapting to their new environment while striving to maintain family unity. Janel Tsai stars as the mother, along with Nina Ye and Shih-Yuan Ma as the children. We heard back on the Croisette that Netflix was very excited about acquiring this movie. 'The original story comes from something my grandfather told me when I was young,' Tsou told Deadline's Melanie Goodfellow in our Cannes Studio. 'He told me the left is the devil's hand, do not use it. At the time I was already 'corrected' as I was originally left-handed, so I didn't really understand, but it stayed in my mind for a long, long time.' 'The story was in my heart for so long, and I really, really want to show how the world how beautiful my country is. This is like a love letter to Taiwan,' Tsou said. Deadline Chief Film Critic Pete Hammond exclaimed, 'Shih-Ching shows strong command of storytelling and shifting tones with high dramatics that could careen out of control but never do, instead keeping us on the edge of our seats. Baker's tight editing really comes into play here and proves worthy of Douglas Sirk at his height. Ultimately what holds it all together are the strong performances all around.' Coming out of the fest, Left-Handed Girl stands at 95% fresh with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Shih-Ching Tsou is a longtime collaborator of Baker's who worked as a producer on his earlier films including Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket. The duo also co-directed a film called Take Out 21 years ago. Both them of co-wrote the movie. Producers are Shih-Ching Tsou, Baker, Mike Goodridge, Jean Labadie and Alice Labadie. Production companies are Left-Handed Girl Film Production, LHG Films LTD, Good Chaos and Le Pacte. Netflix has rights for the majority of the world except for the Baltics, Benelux, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, France, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Scandinavia, Poland and Taiwan. Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Imago' Director Déni Oumar Pitsaev On Winning Two Prizes In Cannes: 'I Didn't Expect It At All'
When Chechen-born filmmaker Déni Oumar Pitsaev came to Cannes with his new documentary Imago, he felt very uncertain about how it would be received. After all, it's a personal story and it's set in a place far from the experience of most people – a remote enclave in a corner of Georgia called Pankissi, very close to the border with Chechnya. But Pitsaev has received the kind of validation in Cannes that filmmakers only dream of, winning two prizes: the L'Oeil d'or for the top documentary at Cannes, and the jury prize at Critics Week. More from Deadline Palm Dog: 'The Love That Remains', 'Sirât', 'Pillion' And 'Amores Perros' Honored - Cannes Film Festival Foul Play Suspected In Cannes Power Outage With Electricity Pylons Sabotaged Cannes Power Restored; Festival Closing Ceremony To Go Ahead As Planned In Wake Of Five-Hour Power Outage In South Of France 'I didn't expect it at all,' Pitsaev told Deadline Friday after the L'Oeil d'or announcement. A day earlier, he shared similar sentiments after winning the French Touch Prize of the Jury from Critics Week. We spoke on the beach at the Plage Miramar as high winds whipped waves in the Mediterranean a few feet away. 'For the moment, it's like an adrenaline rush,' he commented. 'It's going to be a big help for the film for sure. I mean, my producers, they're happier than I am for the moment.' Imago begins with the filmmaker contemplating what to do with a plot of land his mother has given him in Pankissi. Should he sell it? Build a house there? If he goes the house route, what kind should he build? For Pitsaev, who lives in Brussels and Paris, dealing with the Pankissi property involves returning to a place of some painful memories, and reengaging with complicated family dynamics. When Déni was only a few months old, his mom left his dad, and mother and child moved to Kazakhstan, 'defying Chechen tradition that dictates divorced women must leave their children behind,' as Pitsaev writes in a director's statement. 'My grandfather forbade her to return home, but she refused to abandon me.' After his grandfather died a few years later, Pitsaev and his mom moved back to Chechnya. He grew up in the '90s in a chaotic time for the former autonomous Soviet republic, as Chechnya tried to assert independence from Russia. 'We had two wars. The first war started in 1994, and I was like eight years old or something. It's my first experience with war,' Pitsaev recalled. 'When the second war started, it was a few years later in 1999 after Putin arrived in power in Russia… [Starting] the war in Chechnya, it was his first move, actually. And we forget about this; what's happened in Ukraine today, it didn't come from nowhere. It was already there 25 years ago.' As Russian bombing devastated parts of Chechnya, Pitsaev and his mother moved to St. Petersburg. But as a Chechen, he became an immediate object of prejudice. 'It's a really strange thing because you're still a child and you are innocent. You've done nothing wrong and you are a victim of what's happening. It's not Chechnya who invaded Russia. It's Russia who invaded Chechnya and it's Russian bombs killing the people inside of Chechnya,' he said. 'When you're in Russia, they hate you. But for what? I mean, it's like schizophrenic. You don't understand. You are a victim.' His mother encouraged him to change his name to something more Russian sounding: Andrey Andreyevich. 'It was a traumatic experience as a child to change my first name and last name,' he recalled. 'It was like a Russification of my name to protect me from the harassment in school and not to be bullied — not only by children but also by teachers. The teacher in school would say, 'Why we don't stop the war in Chechnya now? It will be easier if we drop an atomic bomb there.' And then you're terrified and you are thinking, 'Does the teacher know that I'm from Chechnya?' You are so scared, and you feel, oh, maybe someone will know. Or maybe my accent will be wrong. You try to do better so your Russian is perfect. It's quite a terrible thing, actually.' For Pitsaev, going back to Pankissi meant facing the strictures and conformity of a quite traditional society. In his director's statement, the filmmaker writes, 'I cannot return to Chechnya today. For political reasons, the land of my childhood is closed to me. It exists now only in memory—a place of freedom and loss. My mother's gift of land in Pankissi felt like a bridge to that unreachable past, but it came with expectations: build a house, start a family, grow the clan. Become 'a Chechen man.'' In the film, Pitsaev is constantly asked when he's going to get married. And when he shows family members the design for the house he wants to build – a modern A-frame, elevated from the ground — they react with a degree of alarm. Both he, a single man, and his house would stick out. Pitsaev's father appears in the film – a genial man who remarried and has two teenage sons with his new wife. Pitsaev tries to confront perhaps the most painful memory of all from his childhood – why his father didn't come for him. There is no simple answer to that question. Traditions and expectations of masculinity bear on his dad's decision to stay away. 'My approach was kind of gentle with them and it's not a big clash in the film,' he said. 'I didn't want to make too much drama, because the film is all about the things we say and especially the things we don't say, and about the silence — almost like secrets, going around things, always playing with them, playing with the words, what we say in words and what we say by our body movements, like body language.' Pitsaev tells Deadline he's now at work on a narrative-fiction film. Imago, meanwhile, will be released in cinemas in France in late October. 'We're more than happy that people can see the film on a big screen as it was planned,' he said. 'All of the images and also sound, all the work we did, it's done for cinema theater to have the full experience.' Pitsaev added, 'For international sales, we're dealing with Beijing-based company Rediance. And we hope they will bring the film all over the world. But yeah, we'll for sure have a New York premiere soon as well.' Best of Deadline 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg Everything We Know About Amazon's 'Verity' Movie So Far Everything We Know About 'The Testaments,' Sequel Series To 'The Handmaid's Tale' So Far
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cannes Critics' Week: Thai Director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke on Possessed Vacuum Cleaners and Dust Pollution in ‘A Useful Ghost'
A ghost-possessed vacuum cleaner might sound like standard horror fare, but in the hands of Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, it transforms into a sly commentary on pollution, power dynamics, and the cost of living crisis in Bangkok. Boonbunchachoke's debut feature, selected for Cannes Critics' Week, marks Thailand's return to the prestigious festival after a decade-long absence. More from Variety 'Miroirs No. 3' Review: Christian Petzold and Paula Beer Team Up Once More for an Elegant Sliver of a Psychodrama 'Thank You for Banking With Us!' Wins Best Film at Critics Awards for Arab Films The Remake Co. Unveils 13th Adaptation of Hit Global Franchise 'Ten Days Without Mom' 'I'm really excited. I'm very delighted, but also nervous as well, because it's such a big event for me,' Boonbunchachoke tells Variety. 'Critics' Week is a very ideal platform for the film for the world to discover it.' 'A Useful Ghost' follows March, who is mourning his wife Nat after she dies from dust pollution. When her spirit returns by possessing a vacuum cleaner, their unconventional human-ghost relationship faces resistance from his family. To prove her worth and their love, Nat offers to cleanse a factory haunted by the ghost of a worker whose death shut down operations. The film ingeniously reimagines the ghost story as a satirical romantic comedy, a deliberate departure from Thailand's renowned horror cinema traditions. 'Thailand is well known for horror cinema, and we also have a genre that might not travel abroad very much – horror comedy,' explains Boonbunchachoke. 'But with this film, I try not to follow the conventions of both paths. One of my first ideas was wondering how a ghost could exist in contemporary society. Do they need to work? Because cost of living here is now very expensive.' This unique approach reflects the director's preference for humor over horror. 'I'm a kind of funny guy more than a guy who wants to scare people,' he says. The film addresses pressing environmental concerns in Thailand, particularly dust pollution, which has become a severe issue over the past decade. 'We have dust pollution every winter. People will start complaining about the dust quality in the neighborhood, especially in Bangkok and in the north,' Boonbunchachoke explains. The film's Thai title carries a dual meaning in local slang, where 'dust' also refers to 'people with no power.' 'Dust is something that we don't want in our house. And people don't want ghosts in the house,' he observes. 'Ghosts are someone who died and supposed to be gone already, but they still linger in the present.' The industrial workspace in the film functions as a compelling allegorical backdrop for broader societal issues. 'The factory itself is a very visual setting for labor exploitation and industrialization, and it says a lot about how pollution could be caused by manufacturing itself, and how laborers could risk their lives due to working conditions,' notes the director. A co-production between Thailand (185 Films), France (Haut Les Mains), Singapore (Momo Film Co), and Germany (Mayana Films), the film benefited from international collaboration, though not without challenges. One unexpected boon was working with a Singaporean industrial designer on the film's crucial vacuum cleaner. 'I never actually considered working with an actual industrial designer because I thought they might emphasize functionality more than aesthetics,' Boonbunchachoke admits. 'But he came up with some very weird designs, and I was amazed.' The film stars Davika Hoorne as Nat, Wisarut Himmarat as March, Apasiri Nitibhon as Suman, and Wanlop Rungkumjad as Krong. Boonbunchachoke, who is of Teochew-Hainanese descent, graduated from Chulalongkorn University's film department. His short film 'Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall' won the Junior Jury Award at Locarno in 2020. In his day job, he works as a scriptwriter for television. 'A Useful Ghost' represents Boonbunchachoke's first feature film. He hopes it will challenge perceptions of Thai cinema. 'I hope people will pay more attention to Thailand again. This film is quite different from what people expect Thai cinema to look like. This film could expand how people see what Thai cinema is and what kind of stories it could tell.' As for what's next, Boonbunchachoke is already gathering ideas for his second feature. 'If this one is successful to some extent, maybe the second film would be easier to get made,' he says. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
South China Morning Post
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Why are Korean films absent from the Cannes Film Festival? A brain drain, Netflix and more
South Korean films are absent from this year's Cannes Film Festival for the first time in more than a decade, and observers say it highlights a brain drain plaguing the industry. Advertisement According to the line-up released by the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13 to 24, no Korean films will be screened in its official selection. A short South Korean animated film, Glasses, directed by Jung Yoo-mi, will be screened as part of Critics Week, an event organised by the French Union of Film Critics that runs in parallel with the festival. It is first time since 2013 that no Korean movies have been included in the official selection. It is also the third year in a row that no Korean films will be screened in competition in Cannes. Director Park Chan-wook accepts the award for best director for Decision to Leave at the 2022 Cannes festival. Photo: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP Korean films have been screened regularly at Cannes since 1984, when Lee Doo-yong's Mulleya Mulleya became the first Korean production to be selected for the festival, and they and their directors have earned strong recognition on the French Riviera.
