Fifteen-year-old Bua has striking looks and lives in the countryside with her grandmother (Sawanee Utoomma), who runs a charcoal factory. Hoping to go to Bangkok and find her mother, she secretly takes beauty pageant lessons behind her grandmother’s back. Amid her grandmother’s declining health and a world growing more unsettled, the more beautiful Bua becomes, and the more the men around her try to exploit her innocence and desperation. Women directors Inthira Charoenpura and Phensiri Klangsurin make their feature debut with Bua, the name of its protagonist and the Thai word for lotus. Bua unfolds against a backdrop of widespread racial discrimination and fierce student movements in 1970s Thailand, yet the deja vu it stirs transcends time and place, leaving a bitter aftertaste. In the end, the spire of sorrow built by the greed of a hypocritical older generation will surely be toppled by the next generation – a generation rooted in decaying organic matter yet blooming clean and beautiful, like the lotus.
Inthira Charoenpura is a Thai actor and filmmaker. She rose to prominence starring in Nang Nak (1999) and appeared alongside Andy Lau in A Fighter’s Blues (2000). Expanding her creative scope into directing alongside her acting career, she co-directed the segment Tom Hang in the omnibus film Love, Not Yet (2011). She subsequently made her feature directorial debut with Bua, co-directed with Phensiri Klangsurin.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
After graduating from Rangsit University, Phensiri Klangsurin directed the segment Desire in the omnibus film Brown Sugar (2010). Following a 16-year hiatus from directing, she made her feature film debut with Bua, co-directed with Inthira Charoenpura.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
