Films by Phassarawin Kulsomboon

Germany, Thailand 2021, 90 min
by Thunska Pansittivorakul, Phassarawin Kulsomboon

Danse Macabre, or Dance of Death, is an artistic, allegorical genre of the Late Dark Ages. Although this period was known for its strict religious virtues, it was also the most degenerate in European history. Danse Macabre is a dance ritual for people of all classes - from kings to beggars - serving as a reminder that death can happen at any time and to everyone.In this film, Danse Macabre is a dance that explores deaths that are remembered and forgotten in history, including those of kings, citizens, and stateless people, on land that many kings chose as their vacation residence. People's deaths are as different as the social class they belong to, in a country where social inequality strongly persists. Many deaths were suspicious in nature, but nobody dared to question them. This has happened over the past 90 years (and may well continue throughout the next century), just like what the deceased warned the living in this dance: "What we were, you are; what we are, you will be."

Germany, Thailand 2018, 103 min
by Thunska Pansittivorakul, Harit Srikhao

"Ruling the country is for soldiers, not civilians", is a recurring sentiment in this documentary that gets its title from German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin: nationalist ideologies always develop in 'empty time', in places where people share a 'homogeneous consciousness'. Based on this idea, the film observes the causes of rising nationalism in Thailand without comment. Various groups are observed, from military cadets to Buddhists, Muslims and the pupils of a Christian boarding school. Their opinions vary wildly on many subjects, but what unites them is boundless confidence in the monarchy. Documentary makers Thunska Pansittivorakul and Harit Srikhao shot Homogeneous, Empty Time between the 2014 military coup and the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in October 2016, as the military leaders consolidated their grip on society and countless political opponents were imprisoned. (IFF Rotterdam)