After hearing a prophecy that his elderly mother may die soon, Sakol sets out on a one-day pilgrimage to nine temples as a remedy. Two weeks before her birthday, he loads her into a rented van with his wife, brother, sister and children, and the family moves from one temple to the next, offering shampoo and razor blades to monks, feeding temple fish, making donations, and bickering in between. Along the way they pass their old family home, now a glass recycling factory, while the grandmother grows quietly more tired, in body and in mind.

Sompot Chidgasornpongse, for many years assistant director to Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who was a DFI Qumra Master in 2018, drew the film from his own family’s temple trips in Samut Prakan, his hometown by the sea. Thais, he notes, often go to temples less to let go of desire than to bank good karma, and nine, pronounced kao, means to step forward. The film watches that faith with tenderness and a raised eyebrow, as the light moves from morning to dusk across one long day. It premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, the first Thai film there in nineteen years, and is Thailand’s submission for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards.