Interwoven are sequences depicting a poor farmer, Tongpan, who had lost his land to another dam some years before, and his struggles to make ends meet.

Among the farmers the students meet is Tongpan, a father of two children with a wife, eking out a living on rented farmland.

The seminar is attended by government officials, foreign experts, young intellectuals and local farmers.

He is paid a total of US$100 for a year of watching his landlord's chickens, and cannot hope to borrow more money to buy food for his family.

The filmmakers were a group of such students involved in the 1973 democracy movement, and included folk musician Surachai Jantimatorn of the songs-for-life band Caravan and director Euthana Mukdasanit.