Wonderful Town

OFFICIAL SELECTION: NEW YORK, ROTTERDAM AND PUSAN FILM FESTIVALS

WINNER: TIGER AWARD: BEST FILM ROTTERDAM

Wonderful Town, writer-director Aditya Assarat s (delicate, delightful, and nearly note-perfect debut feature - Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com), follows Ton, a young Bangkok architect dispatched to oversee a building site in a seaside Thai resort town. There, he meets and gradually falls for Na, a shy and pretty inn-keeper who is equally drawn to Ton. The couple s deceptively tranquil romance takes root and grows, but it is in the aftermath of appalling tragedy. The sleepy tempos and empty streets of Na s picturesque village are the result of devastation from the 2004 tsunami: a tidal wave that swept away 8,000 people in a single day and left a ghost town in its wake. As the young couple s relationship flourishes amidst the ruins, the true toll of the catastrophe that brought them together comes to the surface, and Wonderful Town evolves from a (dreamy and oddly disturbing - Time Out New York) romance to a (touching thriller - (NY Post). Employing (surpassingly lovely filmmaking... that lets each emotion, thought and subtle effect flower, then fade away - Nathan Lee, New York Times), Assarat depicts Ton and Na s increasingly fragile and ultimately tragic idyll with a graceful acuity and focused subtlety that parallels survival with loss and love with rage.