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| The Palme d'Or winner at 2010 Cannes Film Festival, the first Thai entry to do so. |
An extraordinary art house film, both in content and visually, concerns the final days of Uncle Boonmee. He has a farm in the northeast Thailand region of Isan near the border with Laos. This culture while predominantly Buddhist, strongly retains and embraces ancient beliefs of ghosts, spirits, reincarnation, animism and transformation. One particular area foreign and shocking to Westerners, is the idea of inter-species Luv, which is quite taboo in Christian infused cultures. All these beliefs turn up throughout the film in a series of distinct segments that often occur abruptly. The story-telling is fairly straight forward. Be advised: in one section the acting seems quite wooden and languorous. The director said that he was pointing back to the early days of Thai TV of his youth with primitive production values and actors reading their lines in a rather deadpan manner.
One thing that struck C and I was the thought that in this culture, the appearance of a dead loved one at the dinner table is nothing unusual. "Oh hi, honey-haven't seen you in 12 years. Good to see you" could to be a common response. While in our culture, reactions to such an event would range from outright denial to concerns of localized mental aberrations to virulent hysteria. What a curious mind-set! We had many moments such as this throughout the film. We also wondered if these recollections of Uncle were representative of Thai myths and folklore. Very much time for an edition of "Ask a Thai person" to verify this notion.
There is just so much in this film: odd pacings and styles in some of the segments, extraordinary and mysterious happenings and for me, in one piece in particular, some of the most beautifully shot scenes I have ever seen.
This as an adventure to a place so far removed in so many ways from our own and provides a snapshot into the soul of a very old tribe on the other side of the planet. Well worth your time.
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