Language
ARNOLD IS A MODEL STUDENT
Thailand/Singapore/France/Netherlands/Philippines/85 minutes/
Director – Sorayos Prapapan/2022
Taking a deceptively comic approach to contemporary social and political realities in his native Thailand, debut filmmaker Sorayos Prapapan has fashioned an original and gripping vision set in the rigid, cut throat environment of high school. Senior student Arnold (played by Korndanai Marc Dautzenberg) excels at his studies and is a frontrunner for education scholarships and accolades. Yet after returning from studying abroad in the United States, he begins to question the meaning and authoritarian practices of school itself.
The film was partly inspired by Thailand’s 2020 ‘Bad Student Movement’, a series of demonstrations carried out by students opposed to their national school system’s outdated disciplinary practices and abuses of power. Set primarily in and around a Bangkok high school, it follows the emergence of the protests alongside the emotional development of the titular student.