NAK MUAY: Michelle Yeoh Taps In As Exec Producer On Muay Thai Drama From BAFTA-Winning Director Tinge Krishnan
BAFTA-winning writer-director Tinge Krishnan’s new martial arts drama short, Nak Muay, is gearing up for a full feature iteration this year after presenting at the Cannes market. Word via Variety’s Naman Ramachandran and Alex Ritman is that Krishnan has secured U.K. Global Screen Fund backing for the project over at Disruptive Element Films, along with an endorsement from Oscar-winning starlet Michelle Yeoh as executive producer.
The shortfilm itself is shot in a rough, cinematic docudrama style and features professional Muay Thai fighter and actor Natthaphum Kaeowatthanameth – a.k.a. Suablack, in the role of Yod, a prospective athlete whose meteoric rise is carried through bustling and spiraling world of sport fighting and promotion. Away from the limelight however, Yod spends his time at his old gym looking after his a childhood best friend and former athlete, left bedridden with irreversible brain damage after a brutal match.
Nak Muay in its current form is also playing at the fourth edition of TACFEST this year where our own Mike Garcia is serving as juror and has reviewed it, describing it as “a meditation on the cost of glory,” and how the film “reminds that while Muay Thai is one of the most beautiful arts ever created, the life of the person practicing it is often a silent struggle for survival.”
Per Variety:
Krishnan, who is also the film’s writer and producer, said: “‘Nak Muay’ is a visceral, action-driven exploration of resilience, redemption, and the true purpose of martial arts, set against the raw energy of Thailand’s Muay Thai culture. As a director with roots in sci-fi, fantasy, and martial arts, I’ve always sought the female characters I yearned for onscreen – powerful, complex, unyielding. This film wrestles with that desire, centring on Yod. His transformative relationship with the strong women around him is interwoven with his journey as a Muay Thai fighter grappling with his craft’s meaning and his own moral compass after a devastating breakdown. For me this film is the chance to make the film I’ve always wanted to make as a woman and a martial arts practitioner.”
The film is also being produced by BAFTA award-winning Dominic Buchanan, with two-time BAFTA-winning financier and Disruptive Element co-lead Colin Pons also exec producing. Cinematography will be handled by Gavin Kelly with Sol Papadopolous serving as special local consultant according to the report.
Nak Muay is also one of four titles at Disruptive Element that will benefit from the Fund. With pre-production underway after Cannes this month, cameras are expected to roll on the film in August.
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