Memoria

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s first feature made outside of Thailand is an expansive exploration of the permeable border between the natural world and spirit realm, strange afflictions, and haunted landscapes. Troubled by a recurrent, loud banging that only she can hear, Jessica (Tilda Swinton), a recently widowed botanist living in Colombia, embarks on a meandering journey to determine the source of the mysterious noise. Exquisitely photographed by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, the film follows Jessica through the Modernist institutional environs of Ciudad Universitaria de Bogotá, including a hospital room where she visits her sister, a recording studio, an art gallery where lights flicker off as soon as she arrives, and an archeological laboratory. Her encounters manifest more mysteries than answers, and her quest eventually takes her into the verdant wilderness. Memoria becomes a gentle but insistent reminder that no matter how deeply they are buried, collective traumas continue to reemerge as memories and dreams.

—Kate MacKay

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