The Paradise of Thorns (2024) by Boss Kuno
By: Kamori Osthananda, Thailand
The Paradise of Thorns (2024) is Boss Kuno's debut feature film starring Jeff Satur and Engfah Waraha. The film world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this September. Set in Mae Hong Son, a province in Northern Thailand, the film uniquely features the region's distinctive mandolin accompaniment in its soundtrack. We are introduced to Thongkham and Sek, a couple who own and cultivate their lush durian orchard, with acres upon acres of blossoming durian flowers surrounding a hilltop home. As fate would have it, the couple could not harvest their labor of love. As a same-sex couple, Sek and Thongkham were unable to register their marriage at the time. This small gap in the law led to dire consequences and a chain of unfortunate events that followed.
After suffering a fatal accident, Sek was hospitalized and Thongkham found himself unable to rightfully consent to medical authorization on Sek's behalf as Thailand's marriage equality bill was not yet legalized. Thongkham rang Sek's mother to sign the consent form as his guardian. However, with long-distance commutes common among rural villages, Sek's mother did not arrive in time. Thongkham found himself leaving the hospital alone, back to a durian orchard that he would soon discover no longer belonged to his partner nor himself.
As dark as it is becoming, the film's cinematography follows the cultivation of durian that is both metaphorical and visually intoxicating. The fruit, native to Thailand and Southeast Asia, appears as a motif throughout the entire film, cleverly interweaving its fragility and thorns akin to the film's characters. Its ardent cultivation process requires discipline and virtue, similar to the fostering of human relationships. Ultimately, The Paradise of Thorns (2024) is a feature critically exploring stories of inequality across multiple layers of social identities, informed by and beyond gendered lenses.
The Paradise of Thorns (2024), directed by Boss Kuno.