Mekhong Full Moon Party

The co-writer and camerman of Iron Ladies turns director with an understated comedy about events and conflicts in a small town on the Mekhong River, where an apparently supernatural phenomenon appears every year in the eleventh lunar month. (Balls of light ascend from the river into the night sky; local legend holds that they're river dragon Naga's offerings to Buddha, and hordes gather to watch them.) Across a spectrum of believers, sceptics, scientists and conspirators, Jira constructs a panorama of community traditions and values in Isan, Thailand's large north-eastern province. Gently humorous rather than laugh out loud funny, it's engaging and very well acted.