Regretfully at Dawn

North American Premiere

Official Selection, 2024 Busan International Film Festival

REGRETFULLY AT DAWN begins with a granddaughter, Xiang, and her grandfather, Yong, marveling at a bat formation on the side of the road. Xiang, imaginative and full of wonder, pretends to shoot Yong, her enraptured audience and devoted scene partner, dead. Xiang loves animals and charades. She’s learning English, French, and Chinese, which draws the attention of local reporters. Yong, a Thai veteran, is contemplative and nostalgic for “the good old days,” the camaraderie of “brothers in arms,” and the adrenaline of combat. Most of the film follows the slow cadence of their days. Framed around Yong’s devoted care of Xiang, director Sivaroj Kongsakul (Eternity, SDAFF ‘11) captures the crossing of two life trajectories moving at opposite ends, one facing forward, the other looking back. When Xiang is presented with an exciting opportunity, Yong must make a difficult decision.

Moving backwards and forwards in time, REGRETFULLY AT DAWN captures in the rural Thai ambiance uncanny echoes of child’s play and tragedy, the contrasing lightness of young optimism against the heaviness of omnipresent death. A film that aches, that ends with cinema as cold’s refuge, REGRETFULLY AT DAWN is a meditation on life’s many deaths, its unstoppable churn forward, and the inability to return to the loveliest of days.

– Kim-Anh Schreiber