Pon Torthienchai

สมเด็จ (MAJESTY) is a short film which explores familial affection in a reductive and animalistic form in the context of the Asian domestic space, and through a transcendental style of filmmaking. It continues my research into the imposition of silence in film, and how characters interact with one another through facial gestures and body language. Throughout this project I have been investigating the representation of the domestic in cinema from films by Yasujirō Ozu, Yargos Lanthimos and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. My primary inquiry focuses on how the home operated within different cultural contexts as catalyst for human behaviour. This led me to Paul Schrader’s writings around a naturalistic mode of filmmaking, and the concept of a transcendental moment through the act of withholding the frame. As such, the project became about the incorporation of time, and the repetition of imagery and sound to achieve a greater aesthetic meaning in addition to narrative.