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
Ilada Pitsuwan, Rawipa Srisanguan
Thailand
2023
In Thai and Southern Thai with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
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
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
Amrum
Twelve-year-old Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck) sets himself a mission to secure bread and honey for his mother to snap her out of her depression. It is 1945. The war is all but lost, and such luxuries are not easy to find on the remote island of Amrum...
Holy Days
After his mom passes, Brian (Elijah Tamati) is comforted by Sisters Agnes, Luke and Mary Clare (Judy Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver, respectively). The quirky quartet hit the road to save their convent from being sold to a property developer.
Blue Heron
In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.