The Last Visit
‘I search outwardly and inwardly, for the trace of your last visit.
Then, in that place, you have never been.
Now, in the place you have always been.
But this silence…is too loud.’
My 5-year journey from bereavement to the last goodbye, in Estonia and in Thailand, through an exploration of ‘existence’ and ‘life’, from different perspectives and stages of mind.
Director Statement
Losing my aunt to cancer in 2018, while I was on a flight back to Estonia, she departed from Thailand into the unknown space/time. Unable to attend her funeral and had to process this loss alone from the other side of the world, I sought various ways to cope with grief and preserve her memory. I turned to animation as a tool to reanimate, revive, and recall her 'existence' in my memory, exploring concepts of 'transformation' and 'coming to life,' even if only as an imagined 'afterlife'.
The question that kept circling in my mind during this time of loss was "What defines the existence of things?" Is it possible that death is not an eternal separation?
'The Last Visit' is a learning journey between the contexts of Estonia and Thailand, documenting the transformation of grief's conception - from attempting to resurrect my beloved aunt through animation techniques to reaching a state of acceptance about life's impermanence.
Awards & Selections
Awards & Selections
Awards
2023
- Thai Short Film & Video Festival, รางวัลชมเชย ปยุต เงากระจ่าง, Special Mention (Animation competition), Thailand
รางวัลวิจิตรมาตรา, Vichitmatra Award, Thai Short Film & Video Festival, Thailand
2024
- SEASHORTS AWARD, SeaShorts Film Festival, Malaysia
Official Selection
2023
- XXVII International Encounters Traverse, in Situ, in Tempore, France
- Filmtage Lübeck, Nordic Shorts, Germany
New Chitose Airport Int’l Animation Festival, Student Competition, Japan - Animateka, European Young Talent Award, Slovenia
Wildtype, EXPER 2, Thailand - Beyond Animation Film Festival, Thailand
- 27th Thai Short Film & Video Festival, Animation Film Competition, Thailand
2024
- 22nd Tirana International Film Festival, STUDENT Animation, Albania
- 19th Athens Animfest (Online), Greece
Berlin NewGen Film Festival, Germany - 64th Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Graduation Films, France
- 7th SeaShorts Film Festival, SeaShorts Competition, Malaysia
- 10th Animaphix New Contemporary Languages Film Festival, International Competition, Italy
- XI Insomnia International Open-Air Animation Film Festival, International Competition, Russia
- 26th Tel-Aviv International Student Film Festival (TISFF), Tel Aviv
- Doc Club Festival 01, Festival Selections 04, Thailand
- 33th Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards, Thailand
10th REX Animation Festival, Experimental, Stockholm
2025
- 4th Aigio International Short Film Festival, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greece
Keawalee W. is a self-taught animator, facilitator, and co-founder of Klowerº, an initiative dedicated to nurturing the diversity of Thai independent animation — not just in the stories being told, but in the ways they are told. She specializes in both analog and digital 2D animation, drawing from a background that blends art-based research, commercial production, and university-level teaching.
After earning her MA in Animation from EKA (Estonia), Keawalee continued to develop her thesis project *Being-in-Between*, exploring transitional states in...