Original Title: Soon-ya kal สุญกาล
Director: Thunska Pansittivorakul, Harit Srikhao
Runtime: 104 minutes
Country: Thailand, Germany
Language: Thai with English subtitles
Rating: R21 (Mature Content)

Shot between the 2014 military coup in Thailand and the death of King Adulyadej in 2016, the film explores the rising nationalism across the country, as military leaders consolidated their grip on society by manipulating public information and imprisoning countless political opponents. But on what does this contended “nation” rest? Viewing Thailand’s ideological predicament through the lens of the eponymous concept (derived from Walter Benjamin’s ‘On the Concept of History’), the film observes various communities―from Buddhists to Muslims, military cadets to Christian boarding-school pupils―who, despite their differing political and religious opinions, share a “homogeneous consciousness” in their boundless confidence in the royal monarchy, which to them exists as if outside the present (“empty time”).