We tell you what to expect from the film “Memoria”, the new work of Cannes Film Festival laureate Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

As part of the Strelka Film Festival by KION, the Russian premiere of the film “Memoria” by Apichatpong Weerasethakul took place. The film will be released in wide release on November 4, 2021.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is an amazing artist: he turns his viewers into contemplative sculptures. There is no other way to explain how a viewer sits motionless for 2 and a half hours, contemplating all those long silent meditative shots.

Past and Present

The Thai director won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2010 with his “Uncle Boonmee…”. The hero of that film had the ability to see his past lives, and what about the director's new film “Memoria”? In Weerasethakul's first English- and Spanish-language film, shot in Colombia, the main character Jessica sees and actually mentally lives the life of her interlocutor. The director's constant theme of perceiving and showing the world in the unity of past and present is leading here, as in his other films.

The main role in the film “Memoria” was played by the alien Tilda Swinton. Her character wakes up one night from a strange sound. It turns out that only she can hear it. She sets out to find the origin of this sound.

In the 18th century, scientists thought that every object or event had a sound that could reach a person centuries later and carry information about the events that had occurred. Having lost sleep, Jessica embarks on a journey for the mysterious sound, wanting to know where it will lead her. And it leads her to a mysterious man who has eidetic memory, that is, he remembers absolutely all the events of his life, starting from the moment of birth. Somehow it turns out that Jessica also remembers all the events of his life. And thanks to this acquaintance and this knowledge, she finds peace.

Not cinema, but meditation

The denouement of the film “Memoria” is so disarming that the viewer is once again convinced that Weerasethakul's films cannot be identified as cinema in the broad sense. It is rather a meditation session, where through the hero's experiences, you can turn inward and even find answers that have long tormented you.