Thai soap opera meets Buñuelian surrealism in this engrossing experimental narrative. A creaky bus leaves Bangkok for an overnight journey to a small town in Northeastern Thailand, carrying a group of seemingly ordinary passengers. But when prime time rolls around, the passengers, as if possessed, begin enacting a soap story, speaking to each other with borrowed voices (dubbed by the actual soap stars). Whenever the bus comes to a stop, the passengers step out of the story and regain their own voices, revealing a harsh reality that shares some surprising elements with the “fictional” melodrama. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, director Sonakul, along with Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Mysterious Object at Noon), is at the center of Thailand's independent filmmaking scene. I-San Special showcases this creative energy in a wildly imaginative, enjoyable journey