Mangosteen

MANGOSTEEN tells the story of Earth, a young man who returns to his hometown, Rayong, where his sister, Ink, runs a fruit processing factory. During a casual meeting, Earth finds out that his definition of the term “future” is drastically different from his sister’s. The more he tries to involve himself in the fruit juice business, the less he feels needed there. Earth eventually decides to distance himself from the family operation and resumes his old hobby, writing a violent, psychic, irrational, abstract, gory, and unrealistic novel.
Switching narrative directions as well as languages, MANGOSTEEN weaves a meandering path through factory floors and orchards. The film was shot on outdated Digital8 video cameras and follows no clear narrative logic. It is a film as much about storytelling as it is about its protagonist’s erratic and surprising idiosyncrasies.

Production Nattaphan Yamkhaekhai. Production company Nuttaphan Yamkhaekhai (Thailand). Director Tulapop Saenjaroen. Screenplay Tulapop Saenjaroen. Cinematography Parinee Buthrasri. Editing Tulapop Saenjaroen. Music Liew Niyomkarn. Sound design Chalermrat Kaweewattana. Sound Wisawa Jiaue. Production design Phattarapon Meejarean. Costumes Noramon Wanichkamolnant. Assistant director Chanasorn Chaikittiporn. Production manager Saowalak Praboonpeng. Co-producer Saowalak Praboonpeng. With Saksit Khunkitti (Earth), Prae Pupityastaporn (Ink), Sathit Sattarasart (Male Factory Worker), Deunchai Yomphakdi (Fruit Picker), Saowalak Praboonpeng (Factory Staff), Prakarn Rattanachamnong (Narrator).

World sales Electric Eel Films

Tulapop Saenjaroen is an artist and filmmaker whose practice encompasses performance, video and film. His recent shorts interrogate the correlations between image production and production of subjectivity as well as the paradoxes intertwining control and freedom in late capitalism. Saenjaroen’s works have been shown in film festivals, screenings, exhibitions, internationally including Locarno Film Festival; IFFR, Rotterdam; DOK Leipzig; Images Festival, Toronto; International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Saenjaroen also co-founded the experimental film and media screening series “Rapid Eye Movement” in Bangkok.

Films: 2018: A Room with a Coconut View (29 min.). 2020: People on Sunday (21 min.). 2021: Squish! (14 min.), Notes from the Periphery (14 min.). 2022: Mangosteen.