Sompot Chidgasornpongse spent greater than twenty years as assistant director to Apichatpong Weerasethakul, engaged on movies together with “Tropical Malady,” “Syndromes and a Century,” “Cemetery of Splendour” and “Memoria.” Now he’s at Cannes with a characteristic of his personal: “9 Temples to Heaven,” an ensemble drama a few Thai household’s one-day pilgrimage to 9 temples, world premiering in Administrators’ Fortnight and in competitors for the Caméra d’Or.
The movie follows Sakol, who – after a fortune teller warns him his aged mom might die quickly – gathers the household for a ritual journey throughout Thailand’s temple panorama. Produced by Kick The Machine Movies and At A Time in Thailand, with worldwide co-production from E&W Movies (Singapore), petit chaos (France), Needle within the Haystack (Norway), La Fonte (China), Sq. One Movie (Hong Kong) and Qun Movies (Indonesia), the image has worldwide gross sales dealt with by Playtime.
The story took root in Chidgasornpongse’s family rituals. “Making offerings at 9 temples within 1 day, which my family and many Thais also practice, feels like one of the ultimate manifestations of those beliefs,” he says. “Though my critical side has always questioned the effectiveness of the promised outcomes, I continued to practice those rituals, sometimes simply to please my family, or to give myself peace of mind. I’m interested in those contradictions.”
The movie’s central apply is a ritual known as Sangkatan, wherein devotees provide containers of helpful gadgets to the monastic group. “My aim was simply to capture the way things really are in contemporary Thai temples, the regular everyday things that can happen, at least from what I’ve witnessed through my own experiences,” Chidgasornpongse says.
Structured as a highway film, the movie opens in morning gentle and tracks the household by to dusk, shifting from one temple to the subsequent with scenes of journey in between. Chidgasornpongse educated as an architect earlier than turning to cinema and later accomplished an MFA in Movie/Video at CalArts. “We were trained to first think about the overall plan and layout before dealing with the details,” he says. “Perhaps because of that, I often see the structure of my films first, including my short films, even before I fully know the stories that will eventually exist within them.”
The script took form throughout a interval of political turbulence in Thailand following the demise of King Bhumibol. “It created many fractures within society and even within families, especially between the older and younger generations, in terms of how differently they view established sacred institutions and where the country should be heading in the future,” Chidgasornpongse says. These tensions run by the generational dynamics of the movie’s central household.
Weerasethakul serves as producer on the mission, extending a working partnership of greater than twenty years. “I’ve been working closely with Apichatpong for more than 23 years now, so it’s almost impossible to list everything I’ve learned from him,” Chidgasornpongse says, including, with evident humor, that his mentor “still hasn’t made a feature film about a big family ensemble like this one.”
On touchdown in Administrators’ Fortnight for his characteristic debut, Chidgasornpongse says: “Directors’ Fortnight is an amazing section and the home of many films that I love, films that have deeply inspired me as both a filmmaker and a film lover, so premiering our film there is my greatest honor.”
