A Useful Ghost

A wildly entertaining, Cannes-awarded Thai ghost story and class satire, about a factory owner’s wife who returns from the dead and possesses a vacuum cleaner.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul meets Buster Keaton in this highly inventive and hilariously offbeat festival hit, rooted both in Thailand’s complex history and a new generation’s queer, campy frame of reference. When the late Nat returns as a ghost inhabiting a vacuum cleaner, her furious in-laws hope pulling the plug will be enough. But Nat won’t give up so easil – determined to prove she’s a “useful” ghost, she takes increasingly unconventional measures, driving a deeper wedge between management and factory workers. A film quite unlike anything else you’ll see this year.

• Johan Blomqvist