VANISHING POINT

SYNOPSIS

The film takes on the experience from a car accident of the director’s parents 32 years ago. It’s a story of two men who each are running away from a suffering of their own, at different times and places. A young idealistic journalist who cannot stand injustice, and a middle-aged man who turns away from his past and goes on living a meaningless life as a motel owner. They eventually learn that no matter how far and long they would go, the suffering in their minds have never gone away. Until life reaches an unexpected end.

DIRECTOR’S BIO

Jakrawal was born in 1977 in Lopburi, Thailand. He currently lives and works in Bangkok. He obtained his BFA at Silpakorn University, Bangkok (2000) and MFA at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, USA (2006). In 2007-08 he was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Jakrawal’s work spans from short films, documentary films to video installations and feature films. The themes of his work often relate to Eastern philosophy in contemporary context and local history of specific environments to establish dialogue among multiple perspectives. His work was shown in international film festivals including Rotterdam, Berlinale, Toronto and Yamagata, as well as exhibitions at 2012 Taipei Biennial and 2014 SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

17 September 1983 was a seemingly ordinary day, except that several lives in my family has changed forever. It is the day that my parents were devastatingly wounded from a car accident. My father at the time was a young military officer with a bright future ahead of him. He was driving back from a party in the early evening to pick up the kids, with my mother sitting on his side. Inebriated, he stopped the car at a red light on top of one rail track where there was no barrier put in place. A train approached at full speed, hitting the car on the driver side and dragging what remains of the vehicle, and its passengers, for a long distance.

The opening image of VANISHING POINT is the front page picture from the newspaper report of my parents’ accident that day. I grew up with that news photography and my father’s fading memory of the day before the accident.

After several months in recovery, my mother resumed her normal life and work. But my father suffered from severe brain damage, and he could no longer return to the life he used to have. His dashing career suddenly came to a halt. This abrupt change has a big impact on my family. I cannot imagine how my life and my family would turn out had there not been an accident that day. But all these experiences have made me who I am today. I invoke the story of my father, and merge it with other tales inside my head, into a story of two men who are the mirror image of each other. Actions lead to consequences, and the karmic force has a pull on all men just like gravity to earth.

PRINT SOURCE

Jakrawal Nilthamrong
Mai Meksawan
films@diversion-th.com