

Screening on
Sun 15 Dec 17:25
at Barbican cinema
Precarious Landscapes 02
Screening + sound performance
Consisting of both experimental and narrative work from Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, this programme explores myth, fantasy and growing up in a time of crisis and change. By prioritising more speculative modes of storytelling, the films are concerned with how we can imagine new worlds or learn to live with the ghosts of the past. From journeys of return in It’s Raining Frogs Outside and Golden Dragon, to examinations of sexist superstitions in Lemongrass Girl these films explore how we bear change. Tabula Rasa and Pyroclasts are Eloquent Storytellers are more concerned with sensorial and ritualistic relationships to our environment – from the human desire to predict disaster to wandering with the ghosts of history.
The screening will be preceded by a sound performance by Jiajing Zhao, a London-based composer and interdisciplinary artist whose work seeks to evoke cross-sensory imaginations.
Total runtime: 89min + 15min (performance)
It's Raining Frogs Outside
Dir. Maria Estela Paiso | Philippines | 2021 | 14min
As the apocalypse looms, a young Filipino woman is forced to return to her childhood home in the province of Zambales. There, as frogs rain down from the sky, she confronts traumatic memories that condense into a surreal fever dream.
Tabula Rasa
Dir. Taiki Sakpisit | Thailand | 2018 | 20min
There is an abandoned temple hidden among the hills of Chainat province, 188 kilometres north of Bangkok, which was built 450 years ago in the Ayutthaya Kingdom and burnt down during the Burmese–Siamese wars. All that remains now are the ruins on the highlands, haunted by the myth of the wandering spirits of dead soldiers from the wars and a solitary monk who seeks tranquillity within the emptiness of space. The film attempts to represent a meditative state of what John Locke called a blank canvas, or tabula rasa, while examining the nature of moving images, whilst intertwining an oral history of a mother recalling her husband’s series of strange dreams.
Golden Dragon
Dir. Boren Chhith | Cambodia | 2023 | 17min
When Vicheka wakes up in a hospital in the coastal town of Sihanoukville, he tries to piece together the reason for his visit. Overwhelmed by his dreams, memories and the rapidly urbanising landscape of his birthplace, a conversation with a local nurse helps him to begin navigating this pivotal moment in his life.
Lemongrass Girl
Dir. Pom Bunsermvicha | Thailand | 2021 | 17min
According to Thai superstition, a virgin can ward off rain by planting lemongrass upside-down underneath an open sky. This belief remains prevalent to this day. As clouds begin to gather, a young production manager on a film set is tasked to carry out this tradition. As her fellow female co-workers shy away from the duty, she is left with no choice but to take on the burden of becoming the lemongrass girl.
Pyroclasts are Eloquent Storytellers
Dir. Riar Rizaldi | Indonesia | 2022 | 21min
The film observes the notion of prediction—where humans always have their own methods and apparatus in constructing their predictions for the future. In this context, this film focuses on the eruption forecast of one of the most active stratovolcano in the world: Mount Merapi. For many humans who live around the volcano, Merapi as a geological entity is a symbol of a contingent future. The film delves into the psyche of the mountain as well as examines the practice of prophecy performed by people who live around the volcano with their multimodal approach to worldviews.