Krabi, 2562

Krabi is a stunning city on the coast of southwestern Thailand. The beaches glisten, there is plenty of shade from luxuriant greenery, street vendors sell authentic local food and the fertility temple is extremely Instagramable. But in just a few years it will all be gone forever, crushed by mass tourism. Not quite yet, however, in the year 2562 in the Buddhist calendar. We see Krabi through the eyes of a woman who introduces herself in different ways and absorbs the local history and inhabitants’ stories with detachment.

Krabi, 2562 is a joint project by film auteurs Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers. Their divergent styles merge to form a mildly surrealist amalgam of documentary and fiction, in which the Holocene period, complete with cave dwellers, runs into the recent past and the present. Long, static shots give a sense of the mystery of time passing just below the surface of the at times crude and far too impatient now.

Also see Look Then Below in compilation programme Ammodo Tiger Short Competition 5.