Softly Brutal

Louise Lemoine, Ila Bêka / France / 2024 / World Premiere / 92 min.

synopsis

Khlong Toei is one of Bangkok's central districts, home to the largest slum in the exponentially growing Thai metropolis. The place, which accommodates 100,000 inhabitants, could at first glance be characterised by chaos, overcrowding and pollution. However, the pure, immersive observation of the masterful duo Bêka & Lemoine, capturing the rhythms of day and night life in this fascinating environment, proves that it is in fact a living organism in which order reigns and time passes slowly but surely. The means of private and public transport that arrive and depart without ceasing, the cycle of life being born and fading away in the midst of the huge market that is the beating heart of the neighbourhood and the origin of the most diverse interpersonal interactions, the cleaning crews responsible for its cleanliness and its systematised space, children playing and eating together in narrow alleys and cozy rooms shared by entire families – all of these are humanly subtle yet authentically raw images of everyday life that shatter the stereotypical notion of slum life.

“Deconstructing the clichés associated with slums, such as violence, gangs and illicit trafficking, the film is a full immersion and close observation of the living conditions, daily rhythms, micro economies and neighborhood relationships binding this community together.”

biography

Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine, an iconic Italian-French creative duo, have been working together for over fifteen years in video art, film and publishing. Their work and research focus on exploring new cinematic forms and experimenting with narratives in relation to architecture and urbanism. Their established style can be characterized as an anthropology of the everyday and their films have been screened at major film festivals around the world, including Cannes, Venice, Copenhagen, Turin and others.