Skip to main content
Solids by the Seashore film image; two women lean against fence overlooking water

Solids by the Seashore

ทะเลของฉัน มีคลื่นเล็กน้อยถึงปานกลาง

Panorama

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

Patiparn Boontarig’s film, set in the bright, breezy climes of southern Thailand, portrays the slowly blossoming love between two women. Shati (Ilada Pitsuwan) comes from a Muslim background, and we see her quietly chafe against the strictures of her culture. Fon (Rawipa Srisanguan) is more free-spirited, and she partakes of more worldly pleasures. What brings the two together is a love of art: Shati works at a gallery for whom Fon is preparing an exhibit. From their first meeting, the mutual attraction is clear; the suspense lies in Shati’s struggle to transcend her religious boundaries and more general inhibitions.

Mellow and serenely ingratiating, Solids by the Seashore relaxes the mind even as it puts forth a provocative, subversive agenda. The title refers to the Thai government’s attempts to fortify the seashore against rising tides—a misguided practice further tainted by corruption and responsible for soil erosion and other negative environmental outcomes. That is the theme of Fon’s art, and Boontarig embeds the social protest beautifully in his dreamy, poetic film.

 

New Currents Award, Busan 2023

 

Media Partner

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Ilada Pitsuwan, Rawipa Srisanguan

Credits
Country of Origin

Thailand

Year

2023

Language

In Thai and Southern Thai with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
93 min
Award Winners Cinemas of Asia Drama LGBTQIA2S+ Romance
Error Brothers

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Koblarp Thaitun

Producer

Chatchai Chaiyon, Mai Meksawan

Screenwriter

Kalil Pitsuwan, Patiparn Boontarig

Cinematography

Benjamaporn Rattanaraungdetch

Editor

Nisarat Meechok

Original Music

Nattapon Innoo, Sart Pornmuneesoontorn, Korn Saengkiewngam, Sathapat Teeranitayapap, Apichai Tragoolpadetkrai

Art Director

Praewploy Kapkaew

Patiparn Boontarig headshot; Solids by the Seashore director

Patiparn Boontarig

ปฏิภาณ บุณฑริก

Patiparn Boontarig graduated in film and photography at Thammasat University in Bangkok and has worked on a number of shorts and documentaries as director and screenwriter. He was assistant director to Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s Manta Ray (2018 Venice Film Festival) and Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s Anatomy of Time (2021 Tokyo FILMeX Grand Prize). Solids by the Seashore is his first feature film.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Oscar® Shorts 2025: Animation

90 min

Magic candies, first kisses, and three brothers seeking hair transplants... the animated shorts package is a treasure trove of delights.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Chez Jolie Coiffure

Dir. Rosine Mbakam
70 min

Having immigrated to Belgium from Cameroon, Sabine manages Chez Jolie Coiffure. Her salon patrons, many of them undocumented immigrants, are not only be made to feel beautiful but can also escape the daily difficulties and harsh realities of their lives.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

No Other Land

Dir. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor
96 min

Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Mami Wata + Drexciya

Dir. C.J. "Fiery" Obasi
119 min

Fiery Obasi's tremendous, dreamy fable, shot in inky, lustrous black and white, is an elemental tale of magic, devotion, and generational unease set in a traditional Nigerian village.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Nickel Boys

Dir. RaMell Ross
140 min

To tell the story of two friends serving time at a brutal racist Florida reform school, director RaMell Ross puts us inside their heads. It's a radical masterstroke in a powerful film, nominated for Best Picture.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Atlantics

Dir. Mati Diop
106 min

In Dakar, Ada loves Souleiman but has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada's wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. It seems Souleiman has returned.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre