- In the small northern region of Jutland, Denmark, over 900 Thai women are married to Danish men, a trend that started 25 years ago when a former sex worker from Northeastern Thailand married a Jutland native and has since helped lonely local men and impoverished women from her village find someone to marry and share life with. Acclaimed filmmaker Janus Metz and his anthropologist wife, Sine Plambech, follow four of these Thai-Danish couples over ten years in an intimate chronicle that explores universal questions of love and romance, dreams and everyday hardship, life and death, and the very nature of family.
- Sommai, a former sex worker from Pattaya, lives in the windswept Northern Jutland. 25 years ago, she came to Thy to marry Niels, and ever since, she has helped women from her village in Thailand marry Danish men. Now, it is her niece Kae's turn. Sommai and Niels place a personal ad in the newspaper, and soon a suitor comes forward. Meanwhile, in Thailand, another young woman, Saeng, tries to find a Danish man, but Sommai cannot help her, and instead, she must provide for her son by working in the sex bars in Pattaya. Ten years later, we meet them all again and see what consequences their choices in life have had for themselves, their children and the two small communities in different parts of the world. Intimately and attentively, destines and dreams are woven together in an existential life journey.
- 939 Thai women live in the windswept Northern Jutland. 25 years ago, that number was close to zero, apart from Sommai, a former sex worker from Pattaya. She came to Thy to marry Niels and ever since, she has helped women from her village in Thailand marry Danish men. Now, it is her niece Kae's turn.
Kae is on her way to Denmark. Niels and Sommai place a personal ad in the local paper and soon, Kjeld comes forward as a suitor. Kae and Kjeld must overcome shyness and language difficulties in order to find out if they want to get married - just like Niels and Sommai, John and Kae's sister, Mong, and Frank and Mong's cousin, Basit, before them. Meanwhile, in Sommai's village, another young woman, Saeng, tries to find a Danish man. However, Saeng is too young to get married and obtain a residence permit in Denmark, so Sommai cannot help her. Instead, in order to provide for her son, Saeng must go with her female friend Lom to the city of Pattaya, where thousands of Thai women sell sex to Western tourists.
Ten years later, we meet the women and their husbands from Northern Jutland instead. Kae and Kjeld have a little son, while Kae's Thai teenage son struggles to settle in Denmark. John and Mong thrive among garden angles and Buddha statues in their own small multicultural paradise, but Frank and Basit are getting divorced. The young ones still mostly focus on the children and the future, but Sommai is longing for all the things she left behind decades ago. She does not want to die in Denmark, and Niels does not want to live in Thailand.
'Heartbound' is the story of a network of Thai/Danish married couples in two peripheral regions in two different parts of the world. It is an epic family chronicle and a migration story, shot over ten years and three generations, intimately and attentively depicting dreams, longings and needs across global boundaries.
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What is the English language plot outline for Heartbound: A Different Kind of Love Story (2018)?
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