The Tin Mine

Jira Maligool's 2005 Thai film is set at the end of the forties. A young man expelled from an engineering course takes work at a tin mine in the south. The film covers four years of that work. The mine has rules of its own; the British manager, the skilled workers and the order of the camp inside the forest take over the young man's education, and the narrative conveys this without preaching. It is adapted from the writer's own memoirs. The tone is nostalgic but does not hide the hard conditions of the mine. The images are built on the contrast between forest and pit. Who it's for: those who like Thai cinema and period narratives. Who it's not for: viewers expecting incident; this is a memoir told in episodes.