Karaoke Girl

After talking things over with her parents, 15-year-old Sa Sittijun heads to Bangkok to work in a factory; she will send money home to her family, who have stayed behind in the village. Sa very quickly realizes that the pay she earns is hardly enough for family expenses, so she opts for the much more lucrative job of a sex worker.… Embracing her documentary roots, the director of Karaoke Girl combines footage of conversations with members of Sa’s actual family with dramatic sequences focusing on her current life. The two narrative planes are visually differentiated – the more powerful scenes capture Sa’s life in Bangkok, while the more authentic and realistic passages deal with her relatives and the village where she was born. The line between documentary and drama is blurred even further by the fact that Sa plays herself and was fundamentally involved in bringing the movie about. The personal connection that grew between Sa and the director allowed for the creation of an inexpressibly human story that reveals much more about dreams and emotions than about sex. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)