Mangosteen

Forum Expanded 2023

Mangosteen tells the story of Earth, a young man who returns to his hometown, Rayong, where his sister, Ink, runs a fruit processing factory. During a casual meeting, Earth finds out that his definition of the term “future” is drastically different from his sister’s. The more he tries to involve himself in the fruit juice business, the less he feels needed there. Earth eventually decides to distance himself from the family operation and resumes his old hobby, writing a violent, psychic, irrational, abstract, gory, and unrealistic novel.
Switching narrative directions as well as languages, Mangosteen weaves a meandering path through factory floors and orchards. The film was shot on outdated Digital8 video cameras and follows no clear narrative logic. It is a film as much about storytelling as it is about its protagonist’s erratic and surprising idiosyncrasies.

by Tulapop Saenjaroen
with Saksit Khunkitti, Prae Pupityastaporn, Sathit Sattarasart, Deunchai Yomphakdi, Saowalak Praboonpeng, Prakarn Rattanachamnong Thailand 2022 Thai, German 40’ Colour

With

Saksit Khunkitti (Earth)
Prae Pupityastaporn (Ink)
Sathit Sattarasart (Male Factory Worker)
Deunchai Yomphakdi (Fruit Picker)
Saowalak Praboonpeng (Factory Staff)
Prakarn Rattanachamnong (Narrator)

Crew

Director	Tulapop Saenjaroen
Screenplay	Tulapop Saenjaroen
Cinematography	Parinee Buthrasri
Editing	Tulapop Saenjaroen
Music	Liew Niyomkarn
Sound Design	Chalermrat Kaweewattana
Sound	Wisawa Jiaue
Production Design	Phattarapon Meejarean
Costumes	Noramon Wanichkamolnant
Assistant Director	Chanasorn Chaikittiporn
Production Manager	Saowalak Praboonpeng
Producer	Nattaphan Yamkhaekhai
Co-Producer	Saowalak Praboonpeng

World sales

Electric Eel Films

Produced by

Nuttaphan Yamkhaekhai

Photos

Tulapop Saenjaroen

Tulapop Saenjaroen is an artist and filmmaker whose practice encompasses performance, video and film. His recent shorts interrogate the correlations between image production and production of subjectivity as well as the paradoxes intertwining control and freedom in late capitalism. Saenjaroen’s works have been shown in film festivals, screenings, exhibitions, internationally including Locarno Film Festival; IFFR, Rotterdam; DOK Leipzig; Images Festival, Toronto; International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Saenjaroen also co-founded the experimental film and media screening series “Rapid Eye Movement” in Bangkok.

Filmography

2018 A Room with a Coconut View; 29 min. 2020 People on Sunday; 21 min. 2021 Squish!; 14 min. · Notes from the Periphery; 14 min. 2022 Mangosteen

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023