A Useful Ghost

• Thailand-France-Singapore-Germany.
• Direction: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke.
• Production: Cattleya Paosrijaroen, Soros Sukhum, Karim Aitouna, Tan Si En / 185 Films, Haut Les Mains Productions, Momo Film, Mayana Films.
• Screenplay: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke.
• Photography: Pasit Tandaechanurat.
• Music: Chaibovon Seelukwa.
• Edition: Chonlasit Upanigkit.
• Cast: Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjud, Wisarut Homhuan.

At the hugely noble and daring Semaine de la Critique in Cannes, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke was awarded the AMI Paris Grand Prize. And he received it on his own merits, because his film, an exploration in magnificent tones of dark humour and fantasy about mourning, memory and contemporary social, political and everyday tensions in Thailand, deserves this and more. Utterly extravagant —the spirit of your beloved wife takes refuge in a vacuum cleaner, a fridge inhabited by a rather more perverse soul attacks you, ghosts have (homosexual) sex with the living…— it is equally painful and apposite (some say that these ghosts are those who refused to give in to death). Don't worry that you are going mad if it (very) distantly reminds you of Joe Dante's Homecoming (2005).