Manta Ray
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Theatrical Screenings
Kinomuzeum
Kinoteka 2
Online Availability
Additional Materials
Film description
Near a seaside village in Thailand, close to the border with Myanmar, a local fisherman finds an unconscious, wounded man in the forest and takes him into his home. The two men become friends, working and spending their free time together. The fisherman is still struggling to cope with the loss of his wife, who left him for another man. One day, the fisherman disappears. Soon after, his ex-wife unexpectedly returns.
For many years, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng researched the Rohingya refugee crisis, the mass exodus of the Muslim Rohingya population from Myanmar around 2015, caused by state persecution and violence. Many Rohingya fled to Thailand through the border town of Mae Sot, the setting for Aroonpheng’s 2015 short film “Ferris Wheel”, which served as a prelude to “Manta Ray”. In his feature debut, however, the director does not seek to recreate the crisis realistically but instead tells a universal story about the experience of migration and its impact on identity – particularly when migration is marked by trauma and events beyond one’s control.
text:
Maja Korbecka
Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Born in 1976, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Silpakorn University in Bangkok. In 2009, he participated in the Asian Film Academy in Busan and was selected as an Asian Public Intellectuals Fellow by the Nippon Foundation. His short films have been shown at festivals in Busan, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Singapore. He also works as a cinematographer and shot “Vanishing Point” (2015, dir. Jakrawal Nilthamrong), “The Island Funeral” (2015, dir. Pimpaka Towira), and “Dolphins” (2014, dir. Waleed Al-Shehhi). “Manta Ray” is his feature directorial debut, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. In 2023, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng completed his second feature, “Morrison”, the story of a man who returns to his hometown to oversee the renovation of an old hotel.
2006 Going to the Sea
2006 R Train
2006 Retrospection
2007 Rak por peang / The Most Beautiful Man in the World
2009 A Suspended Moment
2009 My Image Observes Your Image If It is Possible to Observe It
2010 Sukati / A Tale of Heaven
2015 Chingcha-sawan / Ferris Wheel
2018 Diabeł morski / Kraben rahu / Manta Ray
2023 Morrison


