Memoria

Apichatpong Weerasethakul in person for Q&A on May 4

Collective and personal ghosts hover over every frame of Memoria, somehow the grandest yet most becalmed of Apichatpong’s works. Inspired by the Thai director’s own memories and those of people he encountered while traveling across Colombia, the film follows Jessica (a wholly immersed Tilda Swinton), an expat botanist visiting her hospitalized sister in Bogotá; while there, she becomes ever more disturbed by an abyssal sound that haunts her sleepless nights and bleary-eyed days, compelling her to seek help in identifying its origins. Thus begins a personal journey that’s also historical excavation, in a film of profound serenity that, like Jessica’s sound, lodges itself in the viewer’s brain as it traverses city and country. The climax is an extraordinary extended encounter with a rural farmer that takes place on a precipice between life and death. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. An NYFF59 Main Slate selection.