Overview

• Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s debut film, 'A Useful Ghost,' has won the inaugural AMI Paris Grand Prize at Cannes Critics’ Week.
• The film uses an absurdist premise—a ghost reincarnated as a vacuum cleaner—to explore themes of grief, memory, and political erasure in Thailand.
• It critiques Thailand's history of suppressing dissent, with allegorical references to the 2010 Red Shirt protests and environmental injustice in Bangkok.
• Davika Hoorne stars as the ghost-turned-vacuum, with the story blending supernatural comedy, LGBTQ romance, and class conflict.
• The win highlights Thailand’s return to prominence at Cannes and underscores the global appetite for politically engaged, genre-defying cinema.