9 Temples to Heaven

The grandmother is growing weak, and so the family sets off together to bring her to nine different temples over one lengthy day in the hope of restoring her to health, three generations split across a minivan and a car following behind, the configurations of drivers and passengers constantly changing. For a while, the same pattern recurs: a ceremony at a garishly impressive temple, a drive through a landscape criss-crossed by new development, so different from back in the grandmother’s youth, polite family chit-chat and gentle concern once her condition starts to deteriorate. But like in any road movie, digression soon begins to creep in, seeping into narrative, camerawork and sound alike: long breaks along the way, conversations about dreams, pans that slide up to the temple ceiling or follow the ants climbing a tree trunk, words that detach themselves from the speaker to become voiceovers, settling over the everyday bustle unfolding all around. From temple to temple, the monks’ words shift between the mundane and the metaphysical, and the latter is the mood that eventually comes to dominate. This oddly circular final journey doesn’t so much end as progressively dissipate, like the light that fades as the moon passes over the sun.
(James Lattimer)

Sompot Chidgasornpongse (selection): TO INFINITY AND BEYOND (2004, K), DISEASES AND A HUNDRED YEAR PERIOD (2008, K), RAILWAY SLEEPERS (2016)