A haunting yet tender portrait of contemporary life, Human Resource by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit premiered in Venice. We sat down with the Thai director for an interview.
I was fortunate to sit down with Thai director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit here in Venice, where his latest film Human Resource had its world premiere in the Orizzonti strand. The film follows Fren, an HR worker who interviews countless young hires while secretly navigating her own pregnancy and the question of whether to bring a child into a fragile world. Though set in the present, the film radiates a dystopian air.
Nawapol told me this was intentional: “The situation in the film could be present and in the future at the same time. It seems like it will be like this for the next ten years.” For him, depicting the office was not about the glossy setups we often see in comedies but about capturing the lifeless atmosphere that so many in Thailand experience daily: “Most Thai people work in an office like this, but there’s no film ever recorded this kind of atmosphere before.”
As we spoke, he drew a striking parallel between the office and filmmaking. While directors seem to have more freedom than corporate workers, he described the pressures of budgets, studios, and audiences: “Actually we are the same… sometimes we share the same bad feeling. They are working for corporate, I am working for film business.”
Visually and in sound, he crafted Human Resource to mirror inner anxieties: muted colors, the droning hum of air conditioners, fragments of podcasts or news, all amplifying the sense of being trapped in a world of constant self-improvement. “You are afraid you would be dumped from your office at any time… when you have to improve yourself all the time, it’s tiring. Why do you have to keep improving your life all the time?”
We also discussed the film’s charged confrontations, like a seemingly mundane clash with a motorcycle driver, that become allegories for how individuals negotiate power, frustration, and the desire to protect loved ones. Nawapol explained: “You want to stand for the right things, but standing for the right thing has consequences. And sometimes it’s not worth doing it.”
When I asked him about hope, his answer was disarmingly modest. Having lost his father two years ago, he told me: “Life is ashes… I don’t expect much. I just want my life peaceful every day. Because I could die at any time. If I’m happy today, it’s enough.”
Venice clearly meant a lot to him. Returning twelve years after his first visit, he described the premiere as unforgettable: a three-minute standing ovation, his cast present to see their work received by an international audience. “I never experienced this before,” he said, smiling.
Our team is on the ground in Italy to cover the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, running from 27 August to 6 September 2025.
