APITCHATPONG WEERESATHAKUL talks to CHRISTINA NORD
It is about remembering – is there a political dimension to remembering?
In Thailand, yes. Because of the manufacturing of memory. Or rather the things you are not allowed to remember. “Primitive Project” was set in Nabua in Northeast Thailand. It is a village that was occupied by communist insurgents and also by the government. So it was at the centre of a conflict.
… without wanting to be?
Exactly. The people were forced become communists. If they got stopped by the police and asked whether they had seen any communists and they said no, they would be beaten up. And if they said yes, I am a communist, they would be killed immediately. So they had no choice but to go into the jungle and become communists. This started in the ’60s and went on until the early ’80s. And no one wants to remember it today.
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