The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

At the lower Klity village, a group of young men go to the river for fishing. The others stay at home or go to school Their lives seem peaceful despite lack of electricity. Nevertheless what I've seen at first is just a surface.This film is based on a famous case during 1999. A group of Klity villagers had filed a lawsuit against the lead mine since it polluted the community's river. As their action seemed hopeless, they still had to rely on that unclean river which was compared as their vein. They have been suffering toxins of the water."By the river" would have been another stereotypical documentary if it intended to be informative. On the Contrary, this is a kind of poetic docudrama that the audience could feel with the people and understand them. Thanks to memorizing cinematography, this film is peaceful yet haunting. Furthermore, it also contains elements of suspense film when one of the Klity villagers disappeared. By the way, Nontawat Numbenchapol made a previous documentary called Fahtum Pandinsoong (Boundary) which was sadly banned in Thailand due to sensitive issue of international relations between Thailand and Cambodia.