Rassamee Phaoluangthong

Tongpan is a 1977 Thai 16 mm black-and-white docudrama that re-creates a seminar that took place in Northeast Thailand in 1975 to discuss the proposed Pa-Mong Dam on the Mekong. Interwoven are sequences depicting a poor farmer, Tongpan, who had lost his land to another dam some years before, and his struggles to make ends meet.

Hilltribes in the Golden Triangle region have different customs and beliefs. This is about the war between 2 such tribes a long time ago. The son of the headman of one tribe is trained in the art of war and the courage to fight the opposing tribe that has stolen their cattle, crops and opium. Once trained the war begins.

Highlights the hardships faced by a boy who works selling popsicles at the local train station and forced by economic circumstance to smuggle rice across the Thai-Malaysian border.