Film Festival 09 - Ticket To Paradise
Ticket to Paradise
Fra Thy til Thailand, Denmark 2008, 59m
Director: Janus Metz
Festivals: Amsterdam Documentary 2008; SXSW 2009
In a small village in the north east of Thailand there are two
kinds of families: those who have a daughter married to a Dane, and
those who don't. The first mentioned live in concrete buildings,
the latter in small wooden cottages. The follow-up to Love on
Delivery follows marriage broker Sommai and her niece Kae back to
Thailand, where Sommai is surrounded by young girls who dream of
escaping from the village. Sommai advises experience first.
The place for that is Pattaya where Sommai started out. Her veiled
encouragement to enter the sex trade may startle some, but for the
women in the film it seems a way to take control of their lives
and, with any luck, encounter a man who can offer financial
security for themselves and their families. Such a beginning led
Sommai to achieve fine things for her community, of which she is
justly proud. The harmonious, transformative relationships we see
arising from these love-for-sale arrangements quietly challenge pc
notions about First-World exploitation of Third-World
disadvantage.
In Danish, English and Thai, with English subtitles
