Nearing the end of his life after a diagnosis, Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) dwells on various moments of his existence, from the banal to the remarkable, across the Thai countryside. Detours take Boonmee across the remembrance of a lost son, a princess and her fish, and the cave where he was born in his first life as he simultaneously contemplates reasons for his illness. Inspired by a book by Buddhist abbot Phra Sripariyattiweti, director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s delicate ruminations on one’s present being and reincarnation conjure a world of spirits, dreams, and the afterworld, crafting a portrait of an individual seeking to answer life’s greatest unknowns. Uncle Boonmee was the first Thai film to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. 2010, UK/Thailand/France/Germany/Spain, 35mm, in Thai and French with English subtitles, 114 min.
Part of Cinema Revived: Timeless Selections from the Vault, an ongoing presentation of notable feature-length films from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
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Bio
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b. Thailand, 1970) has gained worldwide attention for his artistic and groundbreaking experimental films. Before his 2010 feature, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, became the first Thai film to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Weerasethakul was celebrated in 2004 as subject of a Walker Dialogue and Retrospective. This was followed in 2012 with his Walker-commissioned work Cactus River, a short film that debuted on the online Walker Channel. A maker of films and video shorts since 1994, Weerasethakul completed his first feature in 2000. Now recognized as a major international visual artist, he has also mounted exhibitions and installations in many countries since 1998. Lyrical and often fascinatingly mysterious, Weerasethakul’s film works are nonlinear, dealing with memory and in subtle ways invoking personal politics and social issues. Working independently of the Thai commercial film industry, he promotes experimental and independent filmmaking through his company, Kick the Machine Films, founded in 1999, which also produces all his films. His film Memoria (2021) screened at the Walker in June 2022.
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