A Useful Ghost

A wandering ghost with unfinished business haunts her husband’s hoover in this Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prix winner.

After Nat dies of dust poisoning, her ghost possesses a vacuum cleaner from her mother-in-law’s factory and sets about rekindling her relationship with her grief-stricken husband, March – both romantically and carnally. But March’s family disapproves; they never liked Nat when she was alive, much less as a household appliance. So, in order to prove herself a useful ghost to her in-laws, she sets to work cleaning up the spectres of former workers who have taken up residence in the factory’s other appliances.

Though Nat’s quest is the central story, it’s nested within several layers of this multi-tiered phantasmagorical horror-sex-comedy – a stylish and spirited debut from film theory teacher and critic Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke that’s surprisingly sincere, playful and polemical. Its deadpan humour will tickle fans of Yorgos Lanthimos or Aki Kaurismäki, but a sober message of social justice, remembrance and working-class resistance haunts its frames.

“As gloriously and gracefully silly as it is incisive and illuminating … Boonbunchachoke is not just an exciting new voice who pays respect to the ghosts of cinema’s past, but one who finds distinct beauty as he brings them all to joyous life.” – The Wrap