Art Basel | Film | Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria

Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Memoria | 2021

Running time 136’

Palme d’Or winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s first English-language film, Memoria, is a surreal and sumptuous excavation into one’s inner consciousness. Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton delivers a compelling trancelike performance as Jessica, a Scottish expatriate in Colombia, whose seemingly normal life is suddenly disrupted by a strange hollow rumble. In her attempt to find the source of this mysterious sound, she crosses paths with several peculiar characters, including a young sound engineer who seems to vanish suddenly, an archaeologist studying human remains in a tunnel, and a reclusive fish scaler who lives by the river. As the characters reveal their thoughts and memories against the backdrop of bustling Colombia’s mesmerizing mountain landscapes, they form a dreamlike portrait of the relativity of all human experiences and the freedom and clarity one can achieve when one accepts the confounding noise that cuts through the patter of normality.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul ​is a director, writer, producer, and an artist represented by Kiang Malingue, SCAI the Bathhouse and ShanghArt Gallery.