First Grade

Filmed over six years across different parts of Thailand, the documentary follows three children as they grow through friendship, loss, confusion, silence, and change during their childhood.

When her eight-year-old daughter suddenly loses her mother tongue after the death of Gee, her Burmese maid, her mother, Da, is convinced the child has retained a mysterious bond with Gee’s spirit. The two travel to Ranong, a Thai-Burmese border town, in search of Gee’s only relative. There, through a local Burmese doctor, they encounter the world of Burmese labourers and find themselves on a spiritual and psychological exploration of their own lives.