Phuttiphong Aroonpheng's 'The Burning Giants' Screens At Venice

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Phuttiphong Aroonpheng's new film, Yak Mai (The Burning Giants), screened at the Venice Film Festival, presenting a narrative that blends straightforward drama with complex political abstractions. The Thai filmmaker's work draws upon myth and cultural identity, crafting a slow-paced story where smoke from mountains causes mysterious burns, leading to an ethnic minority being scapegoated. The film runs for 118 minutes and stars Awat Ratanapintha, Pakapol Srirongmuang, Waywiree Ittianunkul, and Thanatwut Rodpai.

The movie begins with an out-of-time prologue, showing a nebulous mist rising from an empty theater and spiraling into Thailand's western forests outside Bangkok. While this setting reappears in the film's conclusion, the main narrative focuses on tyrannical oppression. A villager, played by Awat Ratanapintha, with discolored cheeks, is pursued by armed and masked Thai police in the mountains. They refer to his condition as“burns,” suggesting a recent infection, and take him into custody after torching his home. The film also features Sompong ( Teerawat Mulvilai ), the police chief, whose KN95 mask dislodges, exposing him to smoke. He subsequently develops actual burn marks that release magical flames before he succumbs to the unnamed disease.

Aroonpheng's narrative is intentionally fractured, connecting characters without immediately revealing the full scope of events. One conscientious police officer, Lak (Pakapol Srirongmuang), struggles with his role while overseeing the imprisoned villager. Lak later discusses a“mountain person” who refused to evacuate with his girlfriend, Aepoh (Phunthida Phairuangkij), who then shares this information with her sister, Aeva (Waywiree Ittianunkul), a nanny in Bangkok. Aeva, herself from a mountain village, suspects the incarcerated man is her husband, Muso, whom she left behind with their adolescent daughter. The plot gradually brings Aeva to the villager in hopes of finding her lost love, but state powers intervene under the cover of night, allowing no room for justice.

The film's careful unfolding sees characters like Lak compelled to burn villages and kidnap dissenters. Aroonpheng reportedly draws inspiration from real forest clearings for national parks and the forced disappearance of activists, such as Porlajee“Billy” Rakchongcharoen, a member of the Karen ethnic minority. The sound design plays a crucial role, creating a hypnotic atmosphere through music, enigmatic rumbles, and the visceral suffering of the captive villager. The movie's final act deepens its political exploration, unexpectedly shifting to a stage performance of the Ramakien, a re-enactment of the Hindu epic the Ramayana. This coda illuminates national mythologies that justify fascistic violence, referencing the burning of Ravana's kingdom of Lanka in the Ramayana, which mirrors the film's fascistic forest clearings. The film's quiet, harrowing ending examines how religion, political demonization, and economic exploitation are interconnected.

Source: Observer Arts

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