Cherd Songsri

Cherd directed and produced a total of 18 films. His last film, Khang Lang Phap (Behind the Painting) in 2001 was based on the classic Thai novel by Kulap Saipradit. It was a remake of a 1970s film by another veteran Thai director, Piak Poster.

The story of a tragic romance between two peasants in rural Thailand, Plae Kao was the biggest box-office hit up until that time in Thailand. It shared the Golden Montgolfiere at the Nantes Three Continents Festival with They Don't Wear Black-tie by Brazilian director Leon Hirszman. It was also voted as one of the world's 360 classic movies by the Museum of the Moving Image in London, Sight & Sound magazine and film directors and critics worldwide in 1998. The Scar was remade in 2002 as Kwan-Riam.

His subsequent films followed the same pattern as Plae Kao – romantic tragedies set against a backdrop of historical, rural Thailand. Among his other works are Puen Pang (1987), about two sisters in love with the same man; Muen and Rid (1994), a true story from Rama IV-era Siam about a woman who petitioned King Mongkut to make equal rights for women; and Tawipob (1990), the first film adaptation of a novel by Thommayanti, about a modern-day socialite who time travels back to Rama V-era Siam and becomes involved in the political and diplomatic intrigue of the day.

Films from this period include Khwam Rak (1973) and Pho Kai Chae (1975) and his most ambitious film, Plae Kao (The Scar) in 1977, starring Sorapong Chatree and Nantana Ngaograjang.

Norah in 1966 was his first film. He handled all aspects of its production, from script writing, to securing financing and shooting the picture. It was a method of work that he retained throughout his entire career. Another film was the comedy, Poh-pla-lai, starring Sombat Metanee. Both were the most successful Thai films of the 16-mm era.

Cherd studied filmmaking in the late 1960s at the University of California Los Angeles, and trained under director Walter Doniger at Burbank Studios.

Cherd Songsri (Thai: เชิด ทรงศรี, September 20, 1931 – May 21, 2006) was a Thai film director, screenwriter and film producer. A maker of period films that sought to introduce international audiences to his vision of Thai culture, his best-known work is the 1977 romance film Plae Kao (The Scar), which earned more box-office receipts than any Thai film before it. It won a prize at the 1981 Three Continents Festival in Nantes, France.

Cherd was secretive about his age, saying he had stopped counting his birthdays at age 28. But in an obituary, The Nation reported he had been born in 1931.