Somboon

Somboon Ruekkhumyee is a grandfather living with his wife Lamaid in a stilt house in the countryside outside the city of Ayutthaya, in the Sena District of Thailand. Lamaid, who has only one remaining breast and kidney, is a headstrong woman with unruly hair who loves spicy food. Somboon has been her devoted caregiver since she lost her kidney. He uncomplainingly helps her from her bed, drags her on a rug to the door, washes her hair, and gives her dialysis four times a day. Every month they make the 30-kilometer (19-mile) journey by tuk-tuk to the city hospital for a checkup. The detailed observational scenes of the daily care routines between December 2009 and April 2012 are framed by excerpts from an interview with Somboon, who talks about knowing Lamaid from school, their arranged marriage, changing from rice farming to fishing, and sharing life and care for one another. Halfway through the film, the tranquility is disturbed by scenes on TV of the severe flooding that took place during the rainy season in 2011. This film is a testimony to love, loyalty and kinship, accompanied by the tweeting of birds but no additional music. Only at the end do we hear a song of love.