Interview with Pimpaka Towira, the winning director of TIFF Asian Future

A trigger to confront social issues in Thailand

――Considering the political situations (in Thailand) nowadays, how do you expect or think that this film will help build understanding?

Towira： I hope that this film will be released on screen in Thailand as the audience will understand about what we have been trying to do. It is commonly known that we all seek for peace, reconciliation, and peaceful co-existence but in fact they are images from our fabrication. We take it for granted that those people should be like that or we should be like this. We anticipate that Thai audience will get stimulated after watching this film though we are not sure that some issues could be stimulated. They can also interpret it in another way.

Personally, I feel that we are Thai living in the Thai societies and all these issues have existed around us as always. That is to say we have long been surrounded by all problematic issues as well as political and social situations. At least, we could help give these reflections. If this movie holds some values in it, it might help make people discuss whether we would still live with this fabrication of idealistic world or we will truly solve the problems.

All that we could do is to trigger and that is more like the duty of the filmmaker. We could not tell them how things should be. We have no idea either if we would escape from the problems when encountering a lot of problems like the characters in the film. No one wants to confront with problems. We do not know the outcome but we still have a hope.

――What would you like to say to the Japanese audience who came to watch your film?

Towira： I was impressed as many persons who came to talk to me understood the messages that we wanted to convey. Although they might feel that they could not grasp something, they could still feel that there was something interesting in the film for them. I also feel that my movie is not the one that the Japanese or other audience would comprehend for 100%. At least, the ambience in the movie attempts in saying something and some audience could grasp it. I am quite happy and I feel glad that I could come back for the screening. Actually, my first film is a short one which was on screen here in Tokyo in 1998 and it was a crucial platform which I kept growing. Coincidentally, this film is on screen here; so, it is like coming back to the previous cycle. I was still young at that time and from that film I became successful in the making of other films. So, I wish that this movie would be my morale supports which help galvanize something in myself to put this movie forward to other countries.

（November 1, 2015）

Details