CURRENTS

MANTA RAY PHUTTIPHONG AROONPHENG

GIVEN THE UBIQUITY OF THE ONGOING REFUGEE CRISES, IT’S LITTLE SURPRISE THAT FILMmakers worldwide have responded with such impassioned cinematic appraisals of a situation of such widespread consequence. Few directors, however, have approached the issue in as unique a fashion as Thailand’s Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, whose debut feature, , picked up the top prize in the Horizons program at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Dedicated to the stateless Rohingya people of Southeast Asia, plots an enthrallingly existential course through the jungles of the Thai-Myanmar border region. The story centers on an unnamed fisherman (Wanlop Rungkamjad), who stumbles upon the washed-up body of a mute Rohingya refugee (Aphisit Hama). Unable to communicate with him, the fisherman silently tends to the Rohingyan man’s injuries, provides him a bed in his unlocks the metaphysical resonances of an issue often rendered one-dimensional.