I love Thailand. I love Thai food. I love Bangkok. I love Thai directors like Wisit Sasanatieng. I love Thai action stars like Tony Jaa. I love Thai comedians like Mum Jokmok. But Thailand has spent 2007 screwing over its film industry, ravaging it from top to bottom.

First there was the flap over SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's artfilm commissioned for the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna. It's not my particular cup of tea, being very slow and full of artistic value, but it was a labor of love and was very well received by audiences and critics around the world. But it wasn't shown in Thailand because the Thai Censorship Board wanted cuts made of objectionable scenes: two doctors kissing, some Buddhist monks playing with a UFO toy and playing the guitar. Apichatpong refused to make the cuts and the movie was withheld. In an interview, he said:

"I, as a filmmaker, treat my works as I do my own sons or daughters. I don't care if people are fond of them or despise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts. If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reason, let them be free. There is no reason to mutilate them in fear of the system. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art."

Then came the Film and Video Act. While it does give Thailand a ratings system, which is a good thing, it also allows the government to ban films that it doesn't like, it forces filmmakers to get government permission before sending their films to foreign film festivals and it creates a ratings category that prohibits anyone under the age of 24 from seeing certain movies. Thai filmmakers and artists protested, but to no avail. The Act is all set to become law.

Finally, in December, the Bangkok International Film Festival exploded like a cash-stuffed pinata when the FBI arrested its two heads, Gerald and Patricia Green, for bribing the Tourism Authority of Thailand to the tune of $1.7 million in order to receive contracts worth over $10 million from the Thai government. You can read the list of charges and the affadavit from the FBI agent who made the case here, and it is disgusting. People have questioned the relevancy of the Bangkok International Film Festival, they've campaigned for films in the fest to be presented with Thai subtitles, they've been forced to treat the BIFF as a legit international film festival and all along the joke has been on them.

Why is this so appalling? Because the history of Thai film is disappearing but the National Film Archive of Thailand has an annual budget of roughly $70,000 to save it. Because the average Thai movie has a budget of $1 - $2 million and assembling financing is so tough that Thailand's most talented directors spend more time securing investments than making movies. Because 20 million Thai people, a third of the population, lives on just under $2 a day. And in the face of all this, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, some corrupt officials, and a company in Los Angeles set up a film festival that served no other purpose than to steal $10 million from Thailand's public coffers. As a film fan and, frankly, as a human being, I feel pretty comfortable saying that if they're found guilty I hope the Greens, the confidential witnesses who participated in the scam for years before suddenly deciding to testify against their bosses (and anyone who knows the festival can pretty much figure out who they are) and the TAT officials who participated in this theft are forced to watch YEN PE LE SEMAKUT on a loop until their brains turn to jelly.

Because of all this, and because the government won't stop the hundreds of bad horror movies the production companies turn out every year, Thailand is the loser of 2007.

(More on the SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY)

(More on the Film and Video Act)

(More on the Bangkok International Film Festival scandal)