Sawan baan na (2009)
9/10
A riveting visual treatise on Thai peasants' struggles under capitalism
19 February 2010
Stunningly beautiful nature becomes peasants' nightmare in this dramatic film depicting struggling peasants under a capitalistic pyramid scheme. The realism of the story is so palpable that I thought I was watching a documentary. Yet, the movie is a fluidly flowing drama that analyzes dynamic relations between the characters.

The story is also global like capitalism itself, wherever you live, it is very likely that a similar story happens in your country.

The landlord of a small field buys a car on credit while the peasants who work his field struggle with heavy debts to banks. Feudalism lives in 21st century at all levels, from the farm workers all the way up to the bankers.

We also get to know a retired teacher who has bought a small land with his life savings and practices organic farming and living. He lives next to the rice paddy workers who work on the rice paddy with ancient methods.

Is the teacher's way of life too utopian to support crowded rural families? The peasants are in dire straits to pay back the banks in hurry, they are always on the edge, considering going to Bangkok for manual labor jobs. Under this constant threat that the banks impose, can these workers afford to go as slowly as retired teacher? The movie depicts many aspects of capitalism and how it turns people into slaves and how problems in the fields propagate to the city.

Beautiful sceneries and gripping drama make this film a must see.
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