Visiting her sister and brother-in-law in Bogotá, a British expat living in Medellín, Colombia, is awakened at daybreak by the sound of what appears to be an explosion at a construction site. Apparently she’s the only one who heard it…
Posted yesterday at 9:30 a.m.
In 2010, we retained a name which, until then, had only been known to the hippest fringe of film buffs: Apichatpong Weerasethakul. That year, the Thai filmmaker and visual artist won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival thanks to Uncle Boonmee, the one who remembers his past lives.
Although his new feature film, simply titled Memoria, was shot in English and Spanish in a foreign country, Colombia in this case, the filmmaker has lost none of his style and remains faithful to his approach. In perfect coherence, Memoria is a proposal as radical as the preceding ones, whose metaphysical nature will produce a profound effect on some spectators and deadly boredom on others. It is therefore necessary to put oneself in a more particular state of mind to welcome this magnificent contemplative work, made up of long sequence shots, often static.
Speaking directly to a part of ourselves that we rarely frequent, a zone where all the dimensions of human experience come together, Apichatpong Weerasethakul takes us on a mysterious sensory journey with, as a scout, the always fascinating Tilda Swinton. Based on an apparently banal event – a mysterious sound that awakens a woman from her sleep – the filmmaker orchestrates a quest that will lead a human being to the end of himself, and perhaps even elsewhere, in a world where, in a way, the memory of humanity is accessible.
Filmed in the Pijao Mountains and Bogotá, Colombia, Memoria is visually stunning. There are hardly any close-ups in the entire film, and yet Apichatpong Weerasethakul manages, even from a distance, to reach the interiority of his protagonist. Like the work, Tilda Swinton offers a composition devoid of effects, but nevertheless vibrant, totally in tune with an approach where the subconscious areas are also explored.
Winner, tied with Ahed’s knee (Nadav Lapid), the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year, during which a first version of this text was published, Memoria is playing at Cinéma du Parc, in Montreal, for one week only, in English and Spanish original version with English subtitles. From June 3, the film can be seen at the Le Clap cinema in Quebec.
Indoors
Drama
Memoria
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
With Tilda Swinton, Elkin Diaz, Jeanne Balibar
2:16 a.m.
Indoors