More than 20 feature films and shorts from around Southeast Asia will pack theaters at two downtown malls starting Thursday.
With cinemas back in business, the Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival starts at 6pm Thursday with a short film competition before raising the curtain on the full program, including highlights such as Singaporean black comedy Tiong Bahru Social Club, which portrays an imaginative, data-driven project to create the happiest neighborhood in the world.
Recently winning at the Toronto International Film Festival and selected as Indonesia’s Oscar entry, Yuni is a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl whose personal dream is stifled by her conservative society. The movie touches upon several pertinent issues in a Muslim society including arranged marriages, mandatory virginity tests for female students, and a ban on music.