THE EDGE OF DAYBREAK

(2021, DCP, 115m | Thailand, Switzerland) dir. Taiki Sakpisit.

Bangkok 2006, amid brewing political tension, a family, led by politician Parl, shares one final night together at the safe house before a coup d’etat forces him into exile. Later that night, while on the run, Parl crosses paths with a group of illegal immigrants near the Thai-Cambodia border. His wife, Ploy, wakes up from the dream she had the night that she last saw Prasat, her father, at the hospital, as she was held captive. In the mid-1970s, Ploy, aged 9, is in a coma. Prasat has been missing for three years. Pailin, Ploy’s mother and Prasat’s wife, returns from a sanatorium where she has been recuperating from a mental breakdown. She reunites with the family’s Doctor. The presence of a solar eclipse casts a trance-like spell on everyone. Pailin and Doctor reminisce about the past and consume their long suppressing desire.

Later that day, Doctor’s disappearance occurs with the unexpected return of Prasat. Husband and wife face the wounds of their marriage, inner demons, uncompromising darkness and traumatic pasts. As time is suspended by the eclipse, fear and violence loom over the family’s fate and future.

This event is presented by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and sponsored by the University of Minnesota Imagine Fund. Admission is free at the door. 7:00 PM