THENON-HOLLYWOOD CONTENDERS
Thailand has submitted the monk drama Arpatti to compete with 84 other countries in the Oscar race for best foreign-language film. Here we look at some highlights from around the world before the nominations are announced on Jan 24.
The Age Of Shadows
South Korea Directed by Kim Jee-woon Thailand release: Jan 5
South Korea didn’t submit the zombie smash hit Train To Busan to the Oscars, instead opting for this stylish spy thriller set in the 1920s during the Japanese occupation. Starring an ensemble of good-looking nationalists, the film centres on a band of underground resistance fighters trying to smuggle explosives from Shanghai to Seoul and rattle Japanese rule. Gong Yoo — also the lead in
Train To Busan — plays a dapper agent who fronts as an antique dealer (he also has a chase scene on a moving train), while Song Kang-ho, a familiar face in Korean cinema, plays a wily police chief with shifting allegiances.
The Salesman
Iran
Directed by Asghar Farhadi Thailand release: Feb 2017
The life of a decent middle-class couple is disturbed by an unexpected event after they’ve moved into a new apartment once inhabited by a prostitute. Directed by Asghar Farhadi, who won the Best Foreign Language Oscar for his remarkable film A Separation in 2012, The Salesman is a thickly plotted, slightly overcooked psychodrama about husband-wife relationships, with a riff on Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman, and how far a man has to go to protect his family.
Apprentice
Singapore Directed by Boo Junfeng Thailand release: Feb 2017
This prison drama tells the story of a senior hangman in a Singapore prison and a young apprentice who’s being prepped, morally and mentally, to take his place. The discourse-ready topic — capital punishment by hanging in a strict state — is the main motor that allows two performers to shine: Firdaus Rahman as the old executioner, and Wan Hanafi Su as his conflicted trainee. In case you’re curious, the prison scenes were largely shot in Australia. Singapore had a chance at the shortlist two years ago with Ilo Ilo, and Apprentice gives the island nation further hope of Oscar glory.
Elle
France
Directed by Paul Verhoeven Expect it at a film festival in Bangkok
Definitely one of the year’s best films, Elle stars Isabelle Huppert as Michele, a game-company executive who’s raped by a masked intruder in her own house in a violent assault. What follows is a highly unconventional, unpredictable rape-revenge black comedy that sees Michele fantasising about her rapist while dealing with her own dark past. Even for a rape story, this one is controversial as well as strangely empowering, as Michele chooses not to behave like a victim but a mistress of her own fate and feeling. Verhoeven, a Dutchman directing this French-speaking title, is a master of cult hits such as Starship Troopers, Basic Instinct and Showgirls. Elle is a front-runner in the Best Foreign Language Film category, while Huppert, one of the most acclaimed actresses in the world, has a shot at her first Oscar nomination. The film will play at the World Film Festival of Bangkok in February.
Ma’ Rosa
The Philippines Directed by Brillante Mendoza Maybe at a film festival in Bangkok
A sweat-soaked, rain-stained drama about police corruption, Ma’ Rosa is a magnanimous submission from the Philippines because, simply, it doesn’t put the Philippines in the best light, especially regarding how the Duterte presidency has spawned headlines over the past few months. Jaclyn Jose, winner of best actress at Cannes this year, plays Ma’ Rosa, a small-time drug peddler in a slum who’s arrested along with her husband. Over one night at the police station, she and her family become hostages in a ridiculously crooked system that sends her kids out to the street to find enough money to bribe the officers. Shot like a documentary on the seedy streets of Manila, the film has a rush of contemporary relevance that resonates well with other Southeast Asian nations. There’s no word about a screening in Thailand, though.
Fire At Sea
Italy
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi Expect it at a film festival in Bangkok
This is the theme of the year: the refugee crisis. But this documentary by Gianfranco Rosi visits the issue of international consequences with a gentle, poetic touch that reminds you that perhaps not everybody realises there’s fire burning at sea. Shot on the island of Lampedusa, a prime destination for desperate boat people from Africa, the film follows the island’s inhabitants, chiefly a 12-yearold boy, as they navigate their daily lives and as the waves of refugees keep crashing on the land. The film is likely to play at one of the festivals in Bangkok next year.
Neruda
Chile
Directed by Pablo Larrain
No news about Thai screening
Hunted by Pinochet’s secret police, the communist poet Pablo Neruda runs and hides but remains heroically defiant, chest puffed and chin up as he keeps reciting politically charged poems to workers and prostitutes. This is an entertaining film, shot stylishly in retro palette, and follows Neruda (the impressive Luis Gnecco) as he plays hide-and-seek across Chile with detective Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael Garcia Bernal), a government hitman who dreams of becoming a poet himself (it’s Latin America after all). Neruda looks like a front-runner here. The director is Pablo Larrain, who’s having a good year with this film as well as the English-language Jackie, which seems like a contender in many other Oscar categories.
Toni Erdmann
Germany
Directed by Maren Ade
No news about Thai screening, so far
This intelligent, hilarious father-daughter comedy has already topped some of the critics’ best-of lists, and has a strong chance of making the Oscar shortlist. In a set-up as warm as it is ludicrous, a prank-loving father stalks his workaholic daughter as she chases an important business deal. Snubbed by her, the father (Peter Simonischek) assumes another personality, the life coach Toni Erdmann, and sets out to restore some humanity in his icy daughter (Sandra Huller), who’s been sucked into the soulless environment of corporate competition. It’d be a crime if the film didn’t make it to one of the film festivals here.
Clash
Egypt
Directed by Mohamed Diab
A rather ham-fisted retelling of the riotous street protests as the opposition and supporters of President Morsi face off in central Cairo. The entire film takes place in a police truck where citizens of opposite ideologies, rounded up by the authorities, have no choice but to squeeze together in the cramp space. The confrontation between the religious Muslim Brotherhood members and the secular civilians, all locked up in a truck as it moves through the mayhem, seems contrived, and yet the film has an urgency that may appeal to the Oscar voters. It looks unlikely the film would be shown here.
Arpatti (Karma)
Thailand
Directed by Kanittha Kwanyu
Thailand submits Arpatti, a monk horror that caused controversy when it was first banned by the censors, before the producers resubmitted the cut version and got a pass. Charlie Trairat plays a misbehaving young monk who engages in all sorts of impiety (that’s why it was originally banned) and is pursued by the force of his own bad karma. The film was released in Thailand last year.