The Last Visit
Viimane külastusการพบพาน...ครั้ งสุดท้าย’
- ESTONIA, THAILAND / 2023 / English / Color / DCP / 16 min
Director, Photography, Editing: Keawalee Warutkomain
Sound Design: Wardphan Diloksambandh
Source: Keawalee Warutkomain
The pages of a book are turned. On each page, charcoal images are breathed into life and set in motion by the hand of the creator. At times accelerating, at times tinged with color, the charcoal forms memories of her aunt and her feelings toward her. Even though the time of her loved one has stopped, her own time continues to move. The filmmaker recalls her last conversation with her aunt and tries to imagine the final moments of her life that she could not witness—“If only you had been here . . .” A visual poem of loss dedicated to her deceased aunt. (WM)
[Director’s Statement] In 2018, I lost my beloved aunt to cancer. While I was on a flight back to Estonia, she departed from Thailand into the unknown space/time. In the aftermath of this loss, I sought various ways to cope with grief and preserve her memory. I turned to animation as a tool to reanimate, revive, and recall her ‘existence’ in my memory, exploring concepts of ‘transformation’ and ‘coming to life,’ even if only as an imagined ‘afterlife.’
‘What defines the existence of things?’
This journey evolved from my initial attempts to revive my deceased aunt through animation to finally accepting life’s impermanence. The film chronicles my five-year transformative path from bereavement to acceptance, spanning two contrasting environments: Estonia and Thailand. Throughout this process, I explored the interaction between book physicality, drawing, and the creator’s hand, while contemplating ontological questions about animation. Books became poetic spaces in time, allowing me to reflect on her state of ‘becoming’ and my own ‘shifting’ self.
The film’s title comes from the Estonian word küla, playfully translated to reflect a story where a departed soul returns for ‘the last visit’ to gather their footprints before transcending.
Keawalee WarutkomainSelf-taught animator, facilitator, and co-founder of Klower°, aiming to support Thai independent animation diversity in both the story and the telling. After graduating with MA in Animation (from the Estonia Academy of Arts), she continues to develop her thesis Being-in-Between, investigating the shifting stage in her practices. As a Festival Director of the Siam International Animation Festival, Keawalee is committed to expanding access to animation tools beyond Bangkok and traditional professional circles—sharing animation as a powerful way for people to connect with themselves, others, and the world around them.