Manta Ray

Thai director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng is deeply concerned over the plight of the Rohingya, a people in Myanmar exposed to persecution and expulsion. Many have fled to Thailand; many have had to pay for this with their lives. However, the film is more than an indictment: Aroonpheng tells a universal story of uprooting and loneliness, mixing in magical elements to create a remarkable film, that brings the work of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul to mind. It won many awards, including at the Venice Film Festival.

Somewhere along the coast of Thailand many hastily dug graves can be found; at night wandering lights float around, like the souls of the deceased. It is where a local fisherman finds a wounded man and takes him in. The wounded man appears to be mute and probably deaf as well. So the fisherman names him: Thongchai. A special, intimate friendship develops between the two men, which comes to a sudden stop when the fisherman vanishes without a trace.