9 Temples to Heaven

9 Temples to Heaven

When a fortune teller predicts that their elderly grandmother may soon die, nine members of a Thai family set out to visit nine Buddhist temples in a single day. Their pilgrimage becomes a gently funny procession of rituals, squabbles and competing obligations, revealing the rhythms of family life and contemporary Thailand.

Director

Sompot Chidgasornpongse

Runtime

140 Minutes

Country

Thailand

Classification

Unclassified 15+

When a fortune teller predicts that their elderly grandmother may soon die, nine members of a Thai family set out to visit nine Buddhist temples in a single day, hoping to improve her karma. What follows is a pilgrimage of prayers and offerings, but also squabbles, jokes, practical frustrations and competing ideas about what family members owe one another. Moving into fiction, documentarian Sompot Chidgasornpongse retains his gift for unobtrusive but incisive observation. His patient compositions give family behaviour the same attention as temples and ritual, allowing the sacred and everyday to coexist without ceremony. Affectionate and gently funny, 9 Temples to Heaven finds the textures of contemporary Thailand in the details of one family trying, in their various ways, to do right by each other.

“An intimate yet sprawling family drama.”

Screen International

“As sharp as a razor, as light as a feather.”

Cineuropa

Shanghai – Asian New Talent Best Director & Best Actor

Cannes

Sydney

Melbourne

Trailer

Play Trailer

Film Credits

Director

Sompot Chidgasornpongse

Year

2026

Country

Thailand

Language

Thai

Subtitles

English

Type

Feature Fiction

Program Strand

World Cinema

Producer

Kissada Kamyoung & Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Writer

Sompot Chidgasornpongse

Cinematographer

Jonathan Ricquebourg

Editor

Daniel Hui

Cast

Amara Ramnarong, Jirawut Chiwaruck & Surachai Ningsanond

Film Source

Playtime

Genre

Drama & Family

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