Soil Without Land + Complicated Happiness

SOIL WITHOUT LAND (ดินไร้แดน)
Nontawat Numbenchapol, Thailand 2019, 80 Min.

After fleeing the fighting between Burmese forces and the Shan minority, Jai Sang Lod arrives with his family in 2001 in a camp on the Thai border. There, he does his military service with the Shan State Army in order to obtain an identity card and state recognition. Against the backdrop of the conflicts between the Shan and Myanmar, Soil Without Land deals with the construction of masculinity in the military.

COMPLICATED HAPPINESS 
Rosalia Namsai Engchuan, Germany/Thailand 2020, 30 Min.

The supporting film Complicated Happiness shows the Thai community in Berlin against the background of colonial entanglements and sexual power relations. The film, created as a point of contact and in cooperation with the Thaipark community, deals with the notion of female power and the participation in a historiography that is mostly dominated by men.

Nontawat Numbenchapol is a Thai film director and screenwriter, who is widely recognized for his documentary works. He has frequently collaborated on Cannes Palm d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s works. His films were screened at Berlinale, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. His film By the River (2013) became the first Thai film to receive the Special Mention award from the Locarno International Film Festival.