Arnold Is a Model Student

Arnold Is a Model Student is a contemporary portrait of Thai culture captured through the lens of young-adult high-school experience. The excelling Arnold acutely understands the pressure placed on students, and the contradictory ethics associated with his education and success. His acumen allows him a pragmatic distance from growing unrest in the school, which eventually culminates in a student protest. Sorayos Prapapan examines a school where systematic bribery and cheating pervade the education culture in the pursuit of perceived academic excellence and prestige. The image of success promoted by the headmaster is undermined by the rejection of the rigid implementation of rules, after a teacher physically punishes Arnold’s friends with a cane. Based on Thailand’s Bad Student movement, the film is chaptered by the Student Survival Manual, a document created by students with the intention of emboldening their peers to fight for their rights and discard the traditionalist notions enforced onto them. Ultimately, Arnold does not join his classmates, instead manipulating the existing system through the guise of his diverse opportunities and, rather than rebelling, he chooses to explore his life outside of Thailand, even if this comes at a moral cost. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)