Mobile Men by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Mobile Men a short film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul born in 1970 in Bangkok. Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Apichatpong has directed several features and dozens of short films. The short film of 4’08 is about two young men in a pickup truck filming themselves. Coming from Thailand’s neighboring countries, through the use of a camera they are discovering each other. In a windy atmosphere, they initially film each other with close-ups of parts of their bodies, then, little by little, they shoot their full figures. As the camera lenses change, a landscape of rice fields and a cinema crew get into the frame. The camera then reshoots the road and the men, as if we were witnessing a film rehearsal. When the frame goes back to shoot one of the two main characters who has tattoos over his body, the man lifts his shirt up and tears off a wired microphone that is taped to his chest. He then pastes it on the tattoo and cries out from the top of his lungs. The microphone picks up the heavy wind noise and the camera moves to capture his face. He looks directly at the camera, smiling. A segment of Stories on Human Rights 2009 produced by ART for The World commissioned by the High Commissioner of Human Rights with award-winning filmmakers and artists, using the universal language of art to sensitize people across the planet to what “human rights” actually means.