Jenjira Pongpas

Pongpas's recurring collaboration with Apichatpong Weerasethakul offers a very different route into Thai cinema from commercial action or horror. Start with Cemetery of Splendour (2015), where she plays a volunteer tending a soldier affected by a mysterious sleeping illness. Her conversational ease and unhurried attention make the film's dreamlike shifts approachable. This is a performance to spend time with, allowing small gestures and ordinary exchanges to acquire unexpected significance.