Breaking the Cycle review – meet the charismatic Thai politician striving to change his country’s history

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Gripping documentary examines the Future Forward Party’s unprecedented 2019 election result, and its leader’s aim to break Thailand’s repeated military coups With his disarming good looks, pro-democracy activist and businessman Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit resembles an actor rather than a typical Thai politician. Heir to the country’s largest car manufacturer, he is blessed not only with personable charisma but also inexhaustible funds. His stunning rise into public consciousness is the beating heart of Aekaphong Saransate and Thanakrit Duangmaneeporn’s debut film, a thrilling documentary about an extraordinary political campaign that shook a nation. As founder of the progressive Future Forward Party (FFP), Juangroongruangkit’s central message cut through the noise of electoral politics: secure a brighter future by correcting the wrongs of the past. Since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand has undergone a never-ending cycle of military takeovers, including 12 coups. Dur...
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The Whisper of Silence review – coffee-taster drama makes most of stunning locations

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Alfonso Quijada’s feature follows a young woman gifted with an extraordinary sense of smell. It looks great, but fails to satisfy

This drama from El Salvador has several commendable features, starting with a tender, sympathetic central performance from Laura Osma as Josefina, a sweet young woman who discovers she has an exceptional sense of smell. However, something doesn’t quite smell right about the way the film clumsily layers uplift and violence, served up with excessively stylised visuals and sound. It’s as if writer-director Alfonso Quijada, better known hitherto as an actor and producer, doesn’t know if he wants to make a telenovela-style melodrama or something more elevated and arty – in the tradition of Claudia Llosa’s The Milk of Sorrow or Lila Avilés’s films The Chambermaid and Tótem – with long takes and oblique storytelling strategies. In the end, it fails to satisfy either ambition.

Josefina and her younger brother Alfredo (William Castillo) lost their mother not long ago and seem to have no father in the picture; they live with their godmother in a rural part of El Salvador. Josefina picks coffee on an estate owned by Don Villagran (Boris Barraza) while Alfredo is supposed to be going to school. However, he has taken to bunking off with some bad boys, as Josefina’s friend Dalia (Emy Mena) describes them.

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