On Muslim-Thai Horror Films

Madani x Binus Film
Friday, 4 October
16.00-17.30 (Jakarta/Bangkok time): Online Discussion

On Muslim Thai-Horror Movies
Kong Rithdee (co-director of The “Cursed Land”)
Dr. Ade Solihat (lecturer at Arabic Department, Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia)

Host: Ekky Imanjaya Phd.

Two phenomenon just appeared this year: the production of Muslim Thai Horror Films and Indonesian Catholic Exorcism films. both represent minority by minority filmmakers in their respective countries. In Thailand, at least there are two Muslim-Thai Horror films, “Djinn’s Curse” (available on Netflix) and “The Cursed Land”. In Indonesia, “Kuasa Gelap” (Dominion of Darkness) and “Gereja Setan” (Satanic Church) represent non-Muslim (and possibly non-secularistic) approaches of Indonesian horror genre.
For this session, the discussion will focus on the newly fresh development in Thailand Horror films. as globally known, Thailand is famous of its horror films, from “Nang Nak” (1999) and “Shutter” (2004) to “Pee Mak” (2013) and “The Medium” (2021). The production of Muslim-Thai Horror films is something interesting to investigate. Co-director Kong Rithdee will discuss his own works on “The Cursed Land” and beyond. Ade Solihat, an expert of Islamic culture in Southeast Asia, will investigate the Muslim culture on screen related to social and cultural contexts of Thailand pop culture.