Thai Film Archive (Public Organization) A preservation agency and cinemathèque founded in 1984, with the mission to collect, preserve and provide access to Thailand’s audiovisual materials, as well as use film as an educational tool for people of all ages. As part our preservation efforts, we run a restoration lab focused on reviving Thai films and promote the knowledge of Thai cinema history to the world.For international screening contact filmarchivethailand@fapot.or.th
"The first Thai film selected by Cannes Classics"
Santi-Vina
1954 / 117 minutes
Director: “Marut” (Thavi Na Bangchang)
Starring: Poonpan Rangkhavorn, Rayvadi Sriwilai
Production Company: Far East Film, Hanuman Production
In 1954, Santi-Vina participated in the first edition of The Film Festival in Southeast Asia in Japan, where it won two Golden Harvest Awards—Best Cinematographer (R.D. Pestonji) and Best Art Direction (Urai Sirisombat) — thus earning its place as the first Thai film in history to win international film prizes. Over 60 years later, after the negatives of the film had been lost and later recovered in three different film archives, in England, Russia and China, the 4K restored version of Santi-Vina also became the first Thai film to be selected by Cannes Classics, in 2016.
The film tells a tragic love story between Santi, a poor blind man raised by a monk in a cave monastery, and Vina, a young woman determined to write her own romantic destiny. The lovers flee across a desolate field of palm sugar trees, escaping domineering adults and bullies. With Vina emerging as the stronger half of the couple, the film reveals a modern sensibility rarely seen in Thai cinema of the same period.
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"Historical footage of Siam in the 1920s"
See Siam through the Royal State Railway Film Collection
2024 / 90 minutes
Production Company: Thai Film Archive
Music: Korphai ensemble
See Siam through the Royal State Railway Film Collection is a compilation of historical footage shot between 1920s and early 1930s featuring rare, historic images of Siam—ranging from the grandeur of royal pomp and majestic ceremonies to the everyday joy of ordinary life. Digitised from original nitrate film, the compilation has been edited from the original State Railway Film Collection, one of the oldest in the care of the Thai Film Archive.
In 1922, Prince Purachatra, a pioneering figure in Thai cinema and Commissioner of the Royal State Railway, established the Topical Film Service. This groundbreaking film production unit produced films to showcase government initiatives, royal events, and Thailand's tourism potential. It was one of the world's earliest state-run film departments, operating for a decade until the 1932 Siamese Revolution phased out its role. In 1981, while researching Thai film history, Dome Sukvong discovered a collection of over 500 nitrate film reels made by the Topical Film Service, hidden away in an old warehouse. This discovery—a remarkable unearthing of the country’s audiovisual heritage—also led to the founding of the Thai Film Archive in 1984.
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"The first Thai film declared UNESCO's Memory of the World"
The King of the White Elephant
(PHRA CHAO CHANG PHUEAK)
1941 / 100 minutes
Director: Sunh Vasudhara
Starring: Renu Kritayakorn, Suvat Nilsen
Production Company: Pridi Production
The King of the White Elephant was an English-speaking Thai film made to promote the message of peace during World War II. Written and produced by Pridi Banomyong, statesman and the brain behind the Siamese Revolution of 1932, the narrative is adapted from a real historical battle and centres on a confrontation between the righteous King Chakra of Ayodhaya and the invading army of King Hongsa, who demands the auspicious white elephant as his trophy. To prevent bloodshed, King Chakra challenges King Hongsa to an elephant duel. The encounter between the two armies, however, reveals a possibility of peace and compassion in the face of war.
In 2025, UNESCO inducted The King of the White Elephant into the Memory of the World register, an unprecedented honour to Thai cinema. The film is the only pre-World War II Thai film that still exists in its entirety—its historical importance matched by the timeless philosophy the filmmaker staunchly advocated.
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"Thailand’s first film noir, Cannes Classics 2020, Berlinale 1961"
Black Silk
(Prae Dum)
1961 / 118 minutes
Director: R.D. Pestonji
Starring: Rattanawadee Rattanapan, Thom Wissawachart
Production Company: Hanuman Production
Black Silk, Thailand’s first film noir, is a suspense story like no other: the damsel in distress here finds herself torn between guilt and Buddhism, between sin and salvation. The film begins with a long sermon and ends with a longer court verdict—faith vs law, the two forces that shape the contours of human behaviour. Directed by a pioneer of Thai cinema, R.D. Pestonji, the film was selected by the Berlinale in 1961, and 59 years later in 2020, its 4K restored version was selected by Cannes Classics.
Prae is a widowed mother who dresses only in black to mourn her dead husband. At home, she weaves fabric and tends to her young child. But Prae’s relationship with Thom, a henchman of a scheming boss and nightclub owner, draws her into a web of murder, identity theft, insurance scam and blackmail that ultimately threatens the safety of herself and her child. Shot in an elegant interplay of light, shadow and colour, Black Silk mixes film noir elements—crime, guilt, punishment—with traditional Thai aesthetics and Buddhist philosophy.
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"A tragic love story evoking Murnau and Ophüls"
The Scar
(Plae Kao)
1977 / 132 minutes
Director: Cherd Songsri
Starring: Sorapong Chatree,
Nantana Ngaograjang
Production Company: Cherdchai Pappayon
One of the most beloved Thai films of all time, The Scar has made audiences weep for nearly 50 years. Its portrayal of bucolic Thailand—the rice paddies, the water buffaloes, the lovers by the canal—has imprinted the enshrined images of a place locked in time, and yet threatened by the inevitable march of modernity. The star-crossed lovers are Kwan and Riam, teenagers whose romance is undone by social changes and unalterable prejudice. As Tony Rayns describes the film: “As a modernist fable, The Scar bears comparison with Murnau’s classic Sunrise, and its elegant tracking shots evoke another master, Max Ophüls.”
Cherd Songsri is one of Thailand’s most respected filmmakers. The Scar is his best-known film internationally, especially after it won a prize at the Three Continents Festival in Nantes in 1981.
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"Infernal romance set on a remote southern island"
The Adulterer
(Choo)
1972 / 147 minutes
Director: Piak Poster
Starring: Manop Asawathep, Wandee Sritrang, Krung Sriwilai
Production Company: Piak Poster
A hothouse drama shot on an idyllic southern island, The Adulterer tells the tumultuous love triangle between a reclusive fisherman, a young woman whom he rescues from a storm, and her cocky lover who arrives at this remote islet to find her. Passion, jealousy and suspense entangle the three characters in a dark human drama, while male ego and female superego bubble against the widescreen expanse of the blue sea.
Piak Poster, whose real name is Somboonsuk Niyomsiri, began his career as a poster painter—hence his stage name. He would go on to become one of the most commercially successful filmmakers in the 1970s and 1980s, a skillful artist who deftly switched between comedy, drama, adventure, and teen movies. The Adulterer won an award at the 19th Asia-Pacific Film Festival in Singapore and was inducted in the National Film Heritage Registry by the Thai Film Archive.
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"The lost souls of the 1980s"
Whatever, I Don’t Care
(Changmun Chan Mai Care)
1986 / 119 minutes
Director: ML Bhandevanop Devakula
Starring: Sinjai Plengpanich, Likhit Akemongkol
Production Company: Poonsap Production
The director, ML Bhandevanop Devakula, had a flair for swooning drama and psychological reflections. Though little known outside Thailand, Bhandevanop was respected as an eminent acting teacher, theatre maestro and filmmaker with a distinctive voice that captured the emotional tumult of the 1980s.
Set during the economic boom of that decade, and not long after the student protests of the 1970s transformed the country, Whatever, I Don’t Care tells the story of an ambitious advertising executive and former student activist whose path crosses with a male hustler struggling at the bottom rung of society. Their differences in class, social status and intellectual interest couldn’t be wider, and the film casts a long look at Thai society at a time when the trauma of the past still lingers amidst the promise of a brighter, wealthier future. The film stars two of Thailand’s best-known actors of the 1980s, Likhit Akemongkol and Sinjai Plengpanich.
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"An action film with a dose of Spaghetti Western"
I Am with a Monk
(Ka Ma Kab Phra)
1984 / 118 minutes
Director: Kom Akadej
Starring: Sombat Metanee, Sorapong Chatree
Production Company: Coliseum Film
Two legendary Thai actors, Sombat Methanee and Sorapong Chatree, form an unlikely duo in a vintage Thai action film that showcases a unique, oddball, anything-goes style of Thai mayhem—flavoured with a hint of Spaghetti Western influence. The story centres on a vagabond with a shady past who pairs up with a reluctant wandering monk, as they journey through rural Thailand infested with local mafia and unruly thugs. The Buddhist monk’s insistence on pacifism sets up a recurring trope that subtly mocks the essence of action cinema, where everyone is eager to move on to the next fight. The irony cuts deeper since Sombat, who plays the monk, was one of the best-known action heroes of Thai cinema.
Kom Akadej was a Thai filmmaker known for his popular films in the 1980s. I Am with a Monk is a prime example of Thai action cinema, a madcap cauldron blending blunt realism, rural setting and offbeat comedy. The remastered version of the film had an international premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025.
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A classic melodrama with a nod to Douglas Sirk
My Dear Wife
(Mia Luang)
1978 / 145 minutes
Director: Vichit Kounavudhi
Starring: Jatuphol PooApirom,
WongDuen Intrawuth, Viyada Umarin
Production Company:
Five Star Production
“A sophisticated, Sirkian entry in Thailand’s domestic melodrama tradition, My Dear Wife exemplifies the genre’s preoccupation with class aspiration and marital discord in rapidly modernising Bangkok. Director Vichit Kounavudhi crafts an emotionally extravagant narrative centered on the rivalry between a legitimate wife and her husband’s mistress, set against a backdrop of rising middle-class prosperity and social ambition. The film’s widescreen cinematography lavishes attention on the material trappings of urban affluence, while its narrative explores the price of such advancement through the intense psychological warfare between its female protagonists. This new restoration by the Thai Film Archive preserves a vital example of how popular cinema could transform social tensions into compelling entertainment, offering contemporary viewers insight into a crucial period of Thai cultural history.”
Excerpt from the Museum of Modern Art’s catalogue when the film was screened as part of ‘To Save and Project: The 21st MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation’, in January 2025.
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"The trailblazer of Thai indie cinema"
Konjorn
1999 / 89 minutes
Director: Attaporn Thaihirun
Starring: Ray MacDonald,
Chatchai Plengpanich
Production Company: Lotus Film
Hailed by Sight & Sound as “a forgotten gem of Thai cinema”, Konjorn (literally “vagabond”) burst like a heady firework then largely disappeared from the radar. The film’s free-spiritedness, rule-breaking aesthetics and daring visual style paved the path for independent cinema in Thailand at the critical juncture around the turn of the century. The story, about a homeless man who witnesses a crime in a middle-class Bangkok family, addresses issues of class, migrant labour and social prejudice without batting a moral eyelid. Inducted into Thailand’s National Film Heritage in 2012, Konjorn is a brash, fearless experiment in form and storytelling that has withstood the test of time.
The director, Attaporn Thaihirun, struggled to complete the film and finally released it in 1999, at a time when independent cinema was at its nascent stage in Thailand. The Thai Film Archive’s remastered copy of the film has excited a new generation of spectators, struck by the film’s bold, audacious style. Attaporn passed away in 2012.
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A masterpiece of 1970s social-realist cinema
Tongpan
1977 / 62 minutes
Directors: Paijong Laisakul, Surachai Jantimatorn, Euthana Mukdasanit, Rassamee Paoluengthong
Starring: Ong-art Maneewan, Pomhom Pilasombat
Production Company: Isan Film Group
A landmark film and the pinnacle of Thai Third Cinema, Tongpan’s stark power and unflinching gaze into the abyss of hardship and bureaucratic hypocrisy remain as relevant today as in the 1970s, when social-realist filmmakers everywhere in the world discovered the power of cinema as a weapon for activism and resistance.
Tongpan blends documentary with dramatisation—a hybrid film before the format became prevalent—to narrate the plight of Northeastern villagers and the uncertainties surrounding the planned construction of Pha Mong Dam. The narrative intercuts between gritty portrayal of rural existence as Tongpan and his family struggle to make ends meet and a scene in a seminar room where academics and government officials argue, going around in a circle, about the benefits of the proposed dam. As Tongpan sweats in the heat of despair, the irony is cold—and unforgettable.
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