Isan, the largest and most impoverished region of Thailand, has long been a thorn in the kingdom’s flesh with its legacy of pro-democratic movements. Isan Odyssey takes viewers on an enlightening, music-filled journey through the forgotten pages of Thailand’s political history.

This documentary, composed of various video clips and footage, is an exploration to search for some missing jigsaw pieces in history. Something that turned someone into a hero, or an absolute jerk. Some things are hidden under the carpet, from Hiroshima to Teresa Teng to the Space Race, an Olympic and the moon.

SUPERNATURAL's narrative takes place against a backdrop of the world in 100 years from now, and switches to the past lives of three characters who were reincarnated in three different periods of time. Chronologically, the story begins with three men discussing Karen myths on the Thai-Burmese border, and moves on to an unconventional family with strong traditional values and finally to a spaceship stuck between Mars and Jupiter. In all episodes, we can perceive the shadow of 'The Leader,' an unseen character with an overwhelming authority on all the other characters across every period of time.

It doesn't look spectacular at first. Two boys each talk separately about their experiences. In the end also on the sexual level. In the end they are also in the room together. In the end they don't leave it at talking. Remember that homosexuality on film is banned in Thailand and so this film maker has been very daring. Europeans on sex holidays to Thailand and transvestites who work in tourist areas may give a different impression, but this country is far from liberal in regard to homosexuality. A candid film maker like Thunska Pansittivorakul is therefore sure to come into contact with censorship sooner or later. So anyone who wonders why the two kids in this film keep their pants on right up to the end now knows the answer. That doesn't mean that Pansittivorakul is prudish or cautious. You can only call him courageous and maybe even a little obsessed. Sex, gay sex, is his major theme and he has talked plenty of boys out of their clothes for his films. And he has a very outspoken opinion about other things. The film pointedly tackles several Thai political incidents. These subjects may not be hot off the press, because it took the maker three years to complete the film after it was shot. The documentary film shows two boys in a hotel room. First they are questioned individually. The first is a Moslem boy from the South. He is asked about politically and personally sensitive issues. He is then followed by a Buddhist boy from the North. Then they are observed chatting together and finally making love.

In separate sketches, Thunska Pansittivorakul shows the homosexual love between a teacher and pupil more explicitly than ever. Several cryptic scenes refer to the oppressive Thai political situation. A clear reaction to the new law that subjected his previous film, This Area Is Under Quarantine (2009), to censorship. Reincarnate starts with a text: ‘Thailand has since August 2009 banned the screening of sexual acts and genitals in films and anything that damages the interests of the country or causes disharmony in the people’. Thunska Pansittivorakul’s first film, This Area Is Under Quarantine (2009), which was only screened at this festival last year, was the first victim. Images of a violent conflict between the government and Muslim demonstrators did not get past the censor. How can any film maker still show what is happening in his country? In view of the fact that anything can fall under this law, in Reincarnate he shows for the first time flowing sperm. In his previous films, homosexual love was always prominently, but not explicitly present. Alongside separate sketches of the relationship between pupil and teacher, the film is made up of several cryptic scenes that comment on the oppressive political situation, in which all parties only defend their own interests. –IFFR

A black cloak of forgetting, suppressing and covering has descended on the events that took place in Bangkok in spring 2010. Black as the night of complete darkness in which the film opens. Two men are in a fishing boat talking. One feels more than one sees that the seawater around them is warm and smooth, teeming with brightly-colored fish. By night, the rubber plantation also comes across as enticing and full of secrets, until lurid reminders of the bloody massacre flash up. This film arose from of a state of shock – about the news, about the subsequent repression in the authoritarian kingdom but also about the debilitating passivity that followed the pro-democracy Red Shirt uprising. It is a radical personal assessment in 17 episodes. An angry protest in the form of a diary, where sexual resistance and erotic fantasies are juxtaposed with thoughtful rummaging through the director’s family album, creating a confusing pamphlet. As a young boy in the 1970s, Thunska was already forced to flee Bangkok for the south with his mother. The film poses questions without knowing the answers, providing an unusual insight into an extremely traumatized society. –Berlinale