No Exorcism Film
- THAILAND / 2024 / English, Thai / Color / DCP / 20 min
Director, Photography, Editing: Komtouch Napattaloong
Music, Sound Mixing, Sound Design: Tanaad Rasanon
Producer, Source: Dano Napattaloong, Rare Occupant
Digitally recorded images of a crumbling Thai city. Images of a man insisting that a good luck charm saved his life, a skyscraper under construction, a tree battered by a storm, a market, and an amusement park are layered with something resembling the texture of an old television screen. A gloomy, mechanical voice whispers poetic conversations revealing guilt towards the ancestors and fear of the future. As if the unease of an entire Thai generation are represented in a deeply distorted way—perhaps if a robot connected to the cyber realm were to experience a nightmare, it would look like something like this. (IST)
[Director’s Statement] This film is a direct reaction to the voice-over creation process from my previous documentary work, which was an experience that felt frustratingly restrictive and I was uneasy in my own skin. This led me to explore text-to-speech software. Surprisingly, these artificial voices were able to convey my deepest anxieties about my return to and living again in Thailand. This revelation brought a liberating sense of authenticity and freedom. Embracing the artificial, the fictional, and the untrue seems to be my respite from reality, at least for now.
Komtouch NapattaloongA 2016 Abbas Kiarostami Filmmaking in Cuba Workshop participant and a 2024 Berlinale Talents participant, his debut feature documentary, Hours of Ours (2023), premiered at the Visions du Réel 2023 International Feature Film Competition. His works have been showcased at international festivals such as Jeonju IFF, BFI London Film Festival (in the Experimenta section), Visions du Réel, Singapore IFF, the Festival Film Dokumenter Jogja, Mar Del Plata, EXiS, and the Thai Video and Short Film Festival. Additionally, his works have been featured at the Bangkok Biennial, Protocinema’s A Few In Many Places Bangkok, Thailand Biennale’s Open World Cinema, and the triennial Ghost2568: Wish We Were Here. This film, which explores identity deconstructions, belonging anxieties, migration narratives, and historical translations, competed at CPH:DOX 2024 for the NEW:VISION award.