Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng's Manta Ray, which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from September 26 – October 25, 2019 in Mubi's Debuts series.The debut feature of writer-director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, Manta Ray is an intoxicating and ostensibly oblique commentary on a pressing contemporary issue that weaves a genuinely otherworldly and bewitching spell. Evocative of the sensual and woozy aesthetic of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, comparisons to whom Aroonpheng, who cites David Lynch and especially Eraserhead (1977) as his rudder, will no doubt very quickly tire, it’s a film whose spirituality gently masks a genuine interrogation of more corporeal matters. Though initially beginning as a dreamlike allegory, the kernel of the film is the plight of Rohingya refugees and migrant workers, a great number of whom perished in the Moei River, a small body of water marking a frontier between Thailand and Myanmar.
- 9/18/2019
- MUBI
The directorial debut of Phuttiphong Aroonpheng called “Manta Ray” premiered in the Orizzonti section at this year’s edition of Venice, scooping the main award and getting on an extended festival tour that included Toronto, Vancouver, Busan, Thessaloniki and, among others, Zagreb, scoring Special Mention in the main competition. Austere in dialogue, but rich in atmosphere, this film realized in Thai-French-Chinese co-production puts its writer-director in the spotlight as someone worth attention in the future.
“Manta Ray” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
“Manta Ray” starts with a dedication to Rohingya, a stateless people which faces horrific persecution by the government forces in their homeland in north-western Myanmar. Many Rohingya are driven out of their homes and they live as refugees in the other states of South and South-East Asia, in Arab countries (the majority of Rohingya are Muslims) and in the Western World. Some of them are being smuggled into Thailand which is,...
“Manta Ray” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
“Manta Ray” starts with a dedication to Rohingya, a stateless people which faces horrific persecution by the government forces in their homeland in north-western Myanmar. Many Rohingya are driven out of their homes and they live as refugees in the other states of South and South-East Asia, in Arab countries (the majority of Rohingya are Muslims) and in the Western World. Some of them are being smuggled into Thailand which is,...
- 3/14/2019
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
Halfway through Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s hypnotic feature debut, Manta Ray, two men put up Christmas lights around an unadorned riverside shack. They’ve known each other for a while, but seldom speak: one (Wanlop Rungkumjad) is an unnamed Thai fisherman with dyed blonde hair; the other (Aphisit Hama) is a mute man whom the fisherman has found agonizing in a remote stretch of mangroves by the border with Myanmar, and has taken home to look after. The lights are to serve as decoration for a party the two are throwing that same night, but the sun is still high on the horizon; smiling ecstatically at the makeshift disco, the fisherman suggests the two should nap to make the day go by faster. And so they do.
Watching the two young men fall asleep side by side and later sway to a mesmeric electronic tune, their eyes agleam with happiness as...
Watching the two young men fall asleep side by side and later sway to a mesmeric electronic tune, their eyes agleam with happiness as...
- 12/21/2018
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
The directorial debut of Phuttiphong Aroonpheng called “Manta Ray” premiered in the Orizzonti section at this year’s edition of Venice, scooping the main award and getting on an extended festival tour that included Toronto, Vancouver, Busan, Thessaloniki and, among others, Zagreb, scoring Special Mention in the main competition. Austere in dialogue, but rich in atmosphere, this film realized in Thai-French-Chinese co-production puts its writer-director in the spotlight as someone worth attention in the future.
“Manta Ray” starts with a dedication to Rohingya, a stateless people which faces horrific persecution by the government forces in their homeland in north-western Myanmar. Many Rohingya are driven out of their homes and they live as refugees in the other states of South and South-East Asia, in Arab countries (the majority of Rohingya are Muslims) and in the Western World. Some of them are being smuggled into Thailand which is, as the region’s...
“Manta Ray” starts with a dedication to Rohingya, a stateless people which faces horrific persecution by the government forces in their homeland in north-western Myanmar. Many Rohingya are driven out of their homes and they live as refugees in the other states of South and South-East Asia, in Arab countries (the majority of Rohingya are Muslims) and in the Western World. Some of them are being smuggled into Thailand which is, as the region’s...
- 11/26/2018
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
A humanist heart beats loudly in “Manta Ray,” the promising feature debut of Thai writer-director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng. Centered on a mute Rohingya man rescued by a Thai fisherman after having washed ashore near the Thai-Myanmar border, this superficially simple tale of identity, displacement and friendship is wrapped in layers of symbolism that will likely be pleasurably hypnotic for many viewers. While a tough commercial road lies ahead for the film, it seems assured of a lengthy festival life following September playdates at Venice, Toronto and San Sebastian. It will be interesting to monitor Aroonpheng’s progress from here.
Though locations aren’t given and it’s never stated exactly where the silent and unnamed central character hails from, an introductory statement that reads “For the Rohingyas” leaves no doubt that “Manta Ray” is dedicated to the stateless ethnic minority commonly referred to as the most persecuted people on Earth. By...
Though locations aren’t given and it’s never stated exactly where the silent and unnamed central character hails from, an introductory statement that reads “For the Rohingyas” leaves no doubt that “Manta Ray” is dedicated to the stateless ethnic minority commonly referred to as the most persecuted people on Earth. By...
- 9/7/2018
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
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