A new teacher arrives at a small village in rural Thailand. He has just left the monkhood and has taken a job at the local school in a quest to discover life outside the monastery. He finds that one of his pupils is a mute girl who is being bullied by the other children in the class. Both the teacher and the girl must face the challenges and cruelties of the real world. The girl retreats into a fantasy world, finding solace in the forest with a strange wild boy. The teacher struggles to bring her back, whilst at the same time himself questioning the world of reality. The worlds of fantasy and reality clash with tragic consequences.
DIRECTOR: Paul Spurrier
PRODUCER: David Cluck, Peter Green, Nirattisai Kaljareuk, Rob Neft, John Williamson
WRITER: Paul Spurrier, Jiriya Spurrier
CAST: Wannasa Wintawong, Tanapol Kamkunkam, Asanee Suwan, Vithaya Pansringarm, Thidarat Kongkaew
RUNTIME: 1:49:00
COUNTRY: Thailand
LANGUAGE: Thai
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Programmer's Note: PBIFF Best Horror Film nominee THE FOREST is the first Thai-language feature from a Western filmmaker. British-born director Paul Spurrier shot the film in the rural Isaan region of north-eastern Thailand, the poorest region of the country. It largely uses the local Isaan dialect. Few films are shot in this region, and a number of the locations were captured on film for the first time. The story is based on the rural belief in the spirit world, with a cast mainly comprising local people.