The Teacher's Diary

Nithiwat Tharathorn's 2014 Thai film is set in a school that floats on a reservoir. Song is posted as a teacher to this remote place with very few pupils, and while cleaning the classroom he finds a diary. It belonged to Ann, who taught there a year before him. As he reads, he falls for its author; the two have never met, and meeting will not be simple. The film builds its romance not through an encounter but through the traces two people leave in the same room at different times. The story was drawn from a real teacher at a floating school on the Ping River. It was Thailand's Oscar submission that year. Behind the romance it keeps the conditions of rural education continuously in view. Who it's for: viewers who like slow, emotional romance rooted in a place. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a fast love story where the two leads meet early.