In Development
Om (อ้อม)
Feature Film - Thriller
(script available - 80mins)
Screenwriter: David E Woodley
OM is a visceral, character-driven thriller about survival, resilience, and the haunting cost of escape.
Synopsis:
At four years of age Om, a happy little four-year-old from Isaan, the north-eastern rural region of Thailand, reluctantly moves with her young mother Mae to Samut Sakhorn, a heavily polluted industrial area of West Bangkok, to work a food cart in the market streets of Om Noi. While Mae bends for hours cooking over a sizzling wok, Om would stand on a small red plastic stool taking money from the local factory workers and count out their change.
It's not until Om is eighteen that Om could leave her mother’s side to ride the local red bus with the slatted wooden floor, with her best friend Nee, to the local school in the grounds of the region’s Buddhist temple. Here the two friends would learn as much as they can in the sweltering open classroom, with children almost half their age, before catching the bus back to Om Noi where Om would once again help her mother prepare the hot plastic bags of food for the local factory workers, as they headed home for the night. That is until one morning when Om finds her mother collapsed on the bathroom floor, and after being rushed into emergency, Mae dies and Om is left alone.
Om struggles to run the food cart by herself so when Nee suggests she go with her to the idyllic island resort of Koh Samui to 'work bar', and where they can make more money in one night just by sitting and talking to the farangs (foreigners), than Om would cooking in the market street of Om Noi seven days a week, Om doesn't hesitate.
In the seaside village of Lamai Om soon meets Mike Reynolds, a smooth-talking loner from Australia who would sit for hours drinking the local Sangsom whisky as he played Jenga with Ploy, the lesbian 'boss-bar'. He's older but he's charming and says funny things, and there’s nothing Thai people like better than to laugh. After a whirlwind romance and as Mike's holiday draws to an end, Mike suddenly offers to take Om back to Australia on the promise that she can make some 'real money'. For Om, or for any of the girls who worked bar, it's a dream come true to be given the chance of a better life.
However, once in Australia, Om quickly learns that Mike is deeply involved in the seedy side of the Gold Coast and has heavy gambling debts and it's not long before Om finds herself being 'rented out' to Mike’s 'associates' to help pay them off. Mike would then take his frustrations out on Om physically. Until finally one evening, as she tries to defend herself, Om stabs Mike with a small well-hidden kitchen knife and escapes in his tired convertible. Not knowing where she was headed, Om drives through the night until she breaks down outside a small rural country town. An area that reminds her of her homeland. She's alone again but at least she feels safe.
As the day draws to a close and the cold of winter sets in, Om seeks help at a remote farm cottage. Here she meets Mort, a seemingly mentally and physically isolated stranger living alone. Mort helps repair Om's car and she stays the night. It's the first time Om has met a man her own age and it's the first time Mort has had a friend of his own. But when EJ, the local cop who has been investigating a local missing person's case finds out, Om's 'dream come true', soon turns into a nightmare.