A story of alienation and human connection told through the lens of the Rohingya refugee crisis, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng's feature debut follows a Thai fisherman who saves, and eventually befriends, a Rohingya man who has washed ashore near his village, with no name and seemingly no ability to speak. After naming the man Thongchai, the fisherman forms a connection with the stranger despite few words being shared between them, nursing his wounds and helping him form a new life within the community. But in a surprising turn, the fisherman disappears, and Thongchai begins to assert his own place in the story by replacing the fisherman himself, at work and at home. Aroonpheng artfully uses an intimate story to highlight a greater refugee crisis in Thailand and beyond.
Director Biography
Phuttiphong Aroonpheng is a writer, editor, actor and cinematographer. His work as a cinematographer includes The Island Funeral (15) and Vanishing Point (15); Manta Ray marks his feature-directorial debut.
Press
"[A] visual feast whose striking images are serene while in continuous motion—like water rippling in a canal" - Cinema Scope
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