Apichatpong Weerasethakul (TH)

Cemetery of Splendour

Rak ti Khon Kaen

G
Film
P
Graz
 

steirischer herbst is screening the latest film of Thailand’s internationally most important director Apichatpong Weerasethakul for the first time in Graz: A gentle masterpiece of dreamlike magic.

Tips


Fever Room

Beatrice Gibson

Education


Talks

Wed 28/09, 19.30

Orpheum Extra
122’

8 € Single ticket
24 € Combined ticket “Fever Room” & “Cemetery of Splendour”

 

Original version with German subtitles

Talk following the screening with Alexander Horwath (AT) and Claus Philipp (AT)

 


Apichatpong Weerasethakul was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival for his film “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”. The Thai director’s trademarks are his portrayal of the archaic relationship between human beings, their ancestors and nature, the subtle political reflection on his country and his unpretentious mysticism. In his latest film “Cemetery of Splendour”, spirits and reincarnations once again seem to be a natural part of the everyday world, without him ever departing from his meditative rhythm, for dazzling special effects.

Soldiers are being treated for a mysterious sleeping sickness in a former school, where the housewife and volunteer Jen meets the handsome, but lonely Itt who keeps waking up abruptly and going back to sleep just as suddenly. Among the various treatment methods, a medium is used, the young Keng, who helps the relatives communicate with the comatose men. Is there a link between this mysterious syndrome and the ancient mythical site underneath the hospital?

steirischer herbst is showing Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s enigmatic masterpiece for the first time in Graz ahead of his stage production “Fever Room”, that has close parallels with the film in terms of both subject and form.

Direction, text and production Apichatpong Weerasethakul
With Banlop Lomnoi, Jarinpattra Rueangram, Jenjira Pongpas Widner
Camera Diego Garcia
Production design Akekarat Homlaor
Art director Pichan Muangdoung
Costumes Phim U-mari
Sound Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr
Editing Lee Chatametikool
Line producer Suchada Sirithanawuddhi
Direction assistance Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Producers Simon Field, Hans Geißendörfer, Keith Griffiths, Charles de Meaux, Michael Weber
Co-producers Najwa Abu Bakar, Joslyn Barnes, Moisés Cosio Espinosa, Caroleen Feeney, Viola Fügen, Danny Glover, Ingunn Sundelin, Eric Vogel
Associate producers Susan Rockefeller, Georges Schoucair, Holger Stern

Production Kick the Machine Films, Illuminations Films
Co-produced by Anna Sanders Films, Geißendörfer Film- und Fernsehproduktion, Match Factory Productions, ZDF/arte, Astro Shaw, Asia Culture Centre-Asian Arts Theatre, Detalle Films, Louverture Films, Tordenfilm
World sales The Match Factory 2015
Distribution Stadtkino Filmverleih

steirischer herbst
Head of Project Management Dominik Jutz
Project Management Roland Gfrerer
Technical Direction Karl Masten

Grazer Spielstätten
Technical Direction Kurt Schulz

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (TH)

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, born in Bangkok in 1970, works as a film director and script-writer, but is also active in visual and performance art. Weerasethakul began making short films while still taking his bachelor’s course in Architecture at the University of Khon Kaen. In 1999, two years after obtaining his master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he founded his own production firm Kick the Machine Films, that presented Weerasethakul’s first full-length film the following year, the documentary “Dokfar Nai Meu Marn (Mysterious Objects at Noon)“. By breaking with classical narrative structures and examining such topics as memory, politics and sociology, Weerasethakul became one of Asia’s most well-known and prize-winning directors. His feature film “Lung Boonmee Raluek Chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives)“ (2010), for example, was awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival – with Weerasethakul becoming the first Thai to receive this distinction. Alongside making films, Apichatpong Weerasethakul also works as an installation artist, exhibiting at the dOCUMENTA (13) and the Tate Gallery, among other venues. “Fever Room“, his first stage production, is showing for the first time in the German-speaking world at steirischer herbst.

//kickthemachine.com