‘Arnold Is a Model Student’: Sorayos Prapapan’s Debut, Inspired in Part by Thailand’s Bad Student Movement
variety.com“Arnold Is a Model Student,” Thai filmmaker Sorayos Prapapan’s debut feature – premiering in Locarno’s Cineasti del presente section over the weekend – is a lighthearted satire highlighting Thailand’s recent Bad Student movement and authoritarianism in the country’s schools.The film centres around the titular Arnold, a gold medal Mathematics Olympiad student, whose studies abroad have earnt his model student status in the eyes of his school administrators.An international co-production between Thailand, the Netherlands, Singapore, Germany and France, “Arnold” international sales rights are handed by Square Eyes.The film has also had its eight-year journey impacted by filming challenges relating to the pandemic, but its story also evolved in response to contemporary political events in Thailand. “The Bad Student movement came in 2020 and it affected the script a lot,” Prapapan reflects, “it was a perfect match.” Objecting to disciplinary methods such as policing hair, dress codes and physical punishment including caning, the movement published a pamphlet about surviving the school system.
Pages of this guide inspire the chapter headings of Prapapan’s film. “What we teach in school is some kind of propaganda,” notes the filmmaker.The Bad Student protests have created a necessary discourse in Thailand that has affected older generations who received the same treatment during their time at school.
Prapapan’s decision to combine the impact of the movement with his own experiences of school seeks to highlight the historical scope of these issues. “It’s a bit out of the box for the Thai film industry…” lead actor Korndanai Marc Dautzenberg says of the film, “not many artists dare to touch this topic.” Real news clips alternate.
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