"Dao Khanong (By the Time It Gets Dark) is my attempt to deal with the impossibility of making a historical film in a place where there is no history." Anocha Suwichakornpong (Director)
'By The Time It Gets Dark' Is Strange & Shares Ancestry With 'Holy Motors'
Two women arrive at a secluded house surrounded by fields and mountains. The younger woman will direct a film about the older one, a writer whose life was transformed by the student movement in the 1970s. The director records their interviews to use as material for her script. Then we meet a pair of actors whose paths take them in very different directions. Later we meet a young waitress serving breakfast at an idyllic country café, and then see her again, working in the busy dining room of a river cruise ship. Anocha Suwichakornpong slowly and patiently introduces her characters and lets their connections with each other emerge in their own course. As she lures us into the depths of her characters, By the Time It Gets Dark gradually turns into a strange yet utterly beautiful cinematic experience. Suwichakornpong's second feature film is a political and poetic investigation of history, past violence and memory that digs out hope from our challenging times.
2016 LOCARNO, TORONTO, BUSAN, LONDON, HAMBURG, SINGAPORE
Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong graduated from the MFA film program from Columbia University in 2006. She directed the shorts Graceland (2006) and Overseas (2012). Her first feature film Mundane History (2009) was screened at various international festivals. By the Time It Gets Dark (2016) is her second feature.
