Shattering the ceiling of Southeast Asian cinema, Thai filmmaker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke has clinched the Grand Prize at Cannes Critics’ Week with his debut feature “A Useful Ghost,” becoming the first Thai director to achieve this distinction in the festival’s prestigious parallel section.
The win arrives exactly 15 years after Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or triumph with “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” cementing Thailand’s growing footprint on the global festival circuit.
Boonbunchachoke’s film defies easy categorization, blending horror, comedy, and political satire in a narrative centered on a ghost wife who haunts a vacuum cleaner to comfort her grieving husband. This offbeat premise, featuring everything from “sexy ghosts” to battling electrical appliances, serves as the backdrop for a nuanced exploration of Thailand’s political landscape. Like many indie film narratives, the story tackles social issues often avoided by mainstream studios.
The supernatural elements aren’t just weird for weird’s sake—they function as metaphors for the country’s turbulent history of protests and military intervention. The film, produced by Thailand’s 185 Films with multiple countries as co-producers, demonstrates the growing international collaboration in Southeast Asian cinema.
Star power arrives in the form of Davika “Mai” Hoorne, a model-turned-actress with 18 million Instagram followers, whose portrayal of the spectral spouse brings commercial appeal to this arthouse offering. The film features a man mourning his wife’s death due to pollution while she returns as a vacuum cleaner, creating an unconventional love story. Mai navigates the film’s tonal shifts with surprising dexterity, delivering both laughs and emotional resonance.
The film’s LGBTQ+ storylines move beyond typical coming-out narratives to position queer relationships within Thailand’s broader political context—a timely approach following the country’s recent legalization of same-sex marriage in January 2025.
Ghosts symbolizing victims of political violence hunt dissidents in a government minister’s home, creating a multilayered allegory that critiques Thailand’s establishment powers.
“A Useful Ghost” joins a growing cohort of Southeast Asian films gaining international recognition, following Amanda Eu’s “Tiger Stripes” success at last year’s Critics’ Week.