Human Resource

A Bangkok HR manager keeps her pregnancy secret from both her employers and her husband in this sly study of corporate culture.

HR manager Fren is so busy navigating the complexities of her corporate role that she’s not sure if she should tell her own partner – let alone her employers – that she’s pregnant. As she screens job applicants, manages competing workplace personalities and tries to be a supportive spouse to a frustrating husband, Fren begins to wonder whether this unfeeling metropolis populated with people trapped in soul-crushing, screen-centric jobs is a world that she even wants to bring a child into.

Premiering in Venice’s Orizzonti section, Human Resource received a special award for its exploration of work and environmental issues. Though set in the specific environs of Bangkok, there’s a globally relevant quality to its depiction of overly demanding workplace drudgery. Capturing the callousness with which large corporations treat their workers and the harsh realities awaiting anyone setting out on a new career, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s film is a steely, thoughtful meditation on workplaces – and the place of work – in the age of late-stage capitalism.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival