“Pleasing to the eye and quietly affecting, “Agrarian Utopia” gently weaves its way around a community of Thai rice farmers struggling to make ends meet despite harvests of plenty. A promising narrative debut by young helmer Uruphong Raksasad, the pic focuses on traditional lifestyles threatened by economic forces…”

Richard Kuipers – VARIETY

“As in his earlier Stories from the North, Uruphong offers a deeply humane vision, clear-sighted analysis and fantastically beautiful images”

Tony Rayns

“[L]ovel[y], with its golden fields and time-lapse skies, but also more tough-minded in its assessment of the economic and political realities that make its title deeply ironic.”

Dennis Lim – ARTFORUM

“The expansive rice farm […] often fulfilled the title’s promise—depicted with Apichatpong-esque digital-pastoral splendor—but the film topped out with documentary moments of children at play and farmers at work.” 

Nicolas Rapold – FILM COMMENT

“While Agrarian Utopia may seem unusually humble in its scope, the clarity and depth of its vision is tremendous, offering both the hardship and the unsentimentalised joys of daily life.”

Genevieve Yue – SENSES OF CINEMA

“Tr?s ample, il se caract?rise avant tout par une beaut? visuelle, une mise en espace et un tempo qui c?l?brent les ?l?ments de la nature, tout en documentant une mode de vie simple, ? la fois ext?nuant et satisfaisant. […]; l’utopie agraire du titre ne renvoie pas ? une soci?t? id?ale fictionnelle, mais ? une r?alit?, celle de communaut?s vivant heureuses et en harmonie, sur le point de devenir r?volue.”

Matthieu Darras – POSITIF 

“Die Essenz einer Existenzform, eingefangen in schlichtweg atemberaubenden Digitalbildern: Die Zeitraffer-Landschaftsaufnahmen oder das ?berm?tige Tollen von Kindern durch das Feld z?hlen zu den beeindruckendsten Anblicken dieses Kinojahrs.”

Christophe Huber – DIE PRESSE 

“[It’s] no small matter that film-maker Uruphong Raksasad […] should with his latest work Agrarian Utopia choose to tackle his country’s problems in such an uncompromising and direct fashion.”

Neil Young – JIGSAW LOUNGE

“That […] the rice farmers, and the kids are viewed against typically gorgeous landscapes, even what some might imagine as paradises on earth, only exacerbates the difficulty of their situations; yet the juxtapositions, tinged with bitterness, are never ostentatiously presented. The political realities behind their particular forms of labour are also extraordinarily different, and they produce different conclusions […]. This is a world now infused with stultifying familiarity, so that the gap between utopia and actuality remains, like the seasons cycling back to the same starting point, with no real way out.”

Robert Koehler – CINEMA SCOPE

“อุรุพงศ์ […] ไม่ได้ทำหน้าที่เพียงแค่เล่าให้เรื่องดำเนินไปข้างหน้าอย่างเดียว แต่เขายังเป็นคนทำหนังประเภทที่มีดวงตามองเห็นความงาม และสามารถถ่ายทอดความงามนั้นออกมาให้ผู้ชมร่วมดื่มด่ำได้อย่างวิจิตรตระการตา และบรรดาช็อทน้อยใหญ่ที่ถูกเรียงร้อยเข้าด้วยกันอย่างประณีตบรรจง-ก็ค่อยๆ วาดเป็นภาพของท้องไร่ท้องนาในความหมายที่ใกล้เคียงกับ “สรวงสวรรค์” ตามชื่อหนังอย่างแท้จริง”

ประวิทย์ แต่งอักษร – สีสัน

“Although the images are beautifully captured, the unblinking high-definition digital camera lens does not shy away from the hardships two farming families endure […] What’s striking about Uruphong’s films is the intimacy of his photography and camera angles that clearly show a willingness to get right down in the thick of things.”

Wise Kwai – THAI FILM JOURNAL