Phi Pattana

Corroded pixels intertwine with archival Cold War images, assembling a partial account of “development” in Thailand’s northeast.
Voices drawn from Thailand’s role in the Vietnam War and images from the Shell Film Company’s Mekong River project (1964), together with Isan Film Group’s Tongpan (1977), appear, distort and thin out. At irregular moments, rural farmers appear and speak plainly with the cameraperson, who is working with a nearly expired point-and-shoot digital camera. Texts conjured from these broken images form a restless presence that is part-archive, part-machine, part-memory.
The film began with an outdated consumer digital camera discovered in the drawers of the filmmaker’s old family home. The footage was gathered during its final period of use. Its corroded sensor struggles to form a “perfect” image, producing distortions that run alongside the narratives of development it encounters.

Komtouch Napattaloong is an artist and filmmaker based in Bangkok. His film No Exorcism Film competed for the New:Vision Award at CPH:DOX 2024, and his debut feature documentary Hours of Ours premiered in the International Competition at Visions du Réel 2023. His work has been shown at international festivals including the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Jeonju International Film Festival and BFI London Experimenta, as well as in exhibitions such as the Bangkok Biennial and the Ghost2568: Wish We Were Here triennial. He is the co-founder of the audiovisual production company Rare Occupant.

Director Komtouch Napattaloong. Cinematography Komtouch Napattaloong. Editing Komtouch Napattaloong. Music Liew Niyomkarn. Sound Design Liew Niyomkarn. Producer Dano Napattaloong. Production company Rare Occupant (Nonthaburi, Thailand).

Films: 2023: Ror Wan / Hours of Ours. 2024: No Exorcism Film. 2025: These Laticifers Keep Bleeding... (co-directed by Kaisa Saarinen, Bart Seng Wen). 2026: Phi Pattana / In Sum.