BNK48: Girls Don't Cry

Film description

Twenty-six girls of different ages sit down alone in front of the camera to talk about their lives as a member of the Thai super girl band BNK48. Starting from the audition and casting, through exhausting trainings, friendships, competition, daily activities, holidays together, up until the official selection and its aftermath, each of the girls shares thoughts about the entertainment industry, relationships in the team, twisted mechanisms of popularity and the closed system in which they found themselves. Inequality and competition governs their everyday lives since sixteen of them are selected to work on the song and the music video, and the remaining ten are still practicing and preparing for the next selection. None of them thought that the desire for adventure and passion for would force them to quickly grow up ...

In "BNK48: Girls Don't Cry" Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit returns to his signature focus on new media. He looks into the phenomenon of idol culture, wondering about the influence that the development technology and social media have on the lives of modern young people. The frames reveal young filmmaker's author visual style: usage of pastel colours, strong exposure to light. This time, Thamrongrattanarit minimizes his directorial role and allows girls to decide on the plot of the documentary, which thus turns into their personal diary from the time they spent in BNK48. 

Maja Korbecka