ThaiPost leaves indie director’s pride in pieces

By Coconuts Bangkok

Oct 21, 2014 | 4:03pm Bangkok time

The achievement of an independent filmmaker’s life was left shattered in pieces Monday.

Nawapol “Ter” Thamrongrattanarit, director of “Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy,” was worried as soon as he saw the package delivered by Thailand Post containing his award from a German film festival.

Sure enough, when he opened the box, Nawapol’s worst fears were realized. They broke his award which, by the way, was made of solid stone.

“When I recieved the package, the condition of the box looked like it was dropped from an aircraft and penetrated my roof,” Nawapol described. “The award is made of stone, and they broke it.”

When Nawapol was unable to attend Filmfest Hamburg earlier this month, organizers paid to ship his “New Talent Award” award to Thailand.

Congrats to Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit and "Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy" http://t.co/b6zaOdV4ef #FFHH14 pic.twitter.com/KMeLgWAnqI

— Filmfest Hamburg (@FilmfestHamburg) October 5, 2014

Apparently DHL managed to keep it in one piece across several continents, but once inside the kingdom, the plot took a dark turn in the hands of national mail carrier Thailand Post.

Nawapol said the film organization shipped via DHL and the package was handle by Thailand Post domestically.

You have our condolences, Nawapol.

The 30-year-old film director maintained his sense of humor, saying Germany should have called upon Thailand Post’s stone-breaking acumen when it needed that whole Berlin Wall taken down.

“Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy” was an experimental film based on the real tweets of a teenage girl who ran the twitter account @marylony.

The movie portrays Mary’s life in her last semester in high school. It doesn’t follow a conventional story, instead it interprets her messages in re-enacted scenes.

Nowapol is only the latest victim of ThaiPost’s notoriously bad handling. The organization is routinely criticized for smashing, tearing, bending, burning, breaking and just totally losing packages.

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