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Brussels-based company company Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights to “A Useful Ghost” ahead of its world premiere at Cannes Critics’ Week.
“A Useful Ghost” marks the feature debut of Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke who previously directed the short film “Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall” which competed at Locarno in 2020.
The film tells the story of March, who is mourning his wife Nat after she dies due to dust pollution. When he discovers that her spirit has unexpectedly returned in the form of a vacuum cleaner, he embrasses it and the pair form an unconventional human-ghost love story. But March’s family, which has seen their factory turned upside down by the ghost of a former employee, rejects the relationship. Eager to convince the family of her and March’s love, Nat sets off to become a useful ghost and offers to cleanse the factory.
“Despite Thailand being well-known for making scary horror films, ‘A Useful Ghost’ does not try to frighten or scare the audiences, instead it provokes them to think about the relationship between human and ghost in our society,” said Boonbunchachoke.
“How ghosts live?’ ‘Do ghosts need the living to exist?’ ‘How ghosts work?’ ‘Do ghosts pay the rent themselves?’ These are a few silly questions popping in my head while I first started the project years ago,” the director continued. He said his idea was to “expand the original idea into a playful story with humour and social observation.”
Martin Gondre and Charles Bin, Best Friend Forever’s co-founders, said “Ratchapoom managed to craft a totally unique film, masterfully digesting his masters’ influences into such a fresh and modern proposition, mixing the genre as we never seen before.”
“A Useful Ghost” boasts a strong Thai cast, including Davika Hoorne (“Pee Mak”), Apasiri Nitibhon And Wisarut Himmarat. It’s produced By 185 Films (“Morte Cucina”), Haut Les Mains (“Where The Wind Comes From”) And Momo Film Co (“Don’t Cry, Butterfly”).
Best Friend Forever’s Cannes lineup also includes Guillermo Galoe’s “Sleepless City” which will also play at Critics’ Week.
