When Apichatpong ‘Joe' Weerasethakul received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival for his film ‘Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives' earlier this year, he thanked not only his “brave and patient producers” but also the “ghosts and spirits of Thailand” who got him there. This film, like most in Apichatpong's impressive body of work, challenges and subverts notions of reality, memory and space.
Small town roots
Apichatpong grew up in Khon Kaen, a small town where his parents, who were doctors, worked. According to him there was little there apart from a hospital, a cinema house and a school, and most of his films reflect these early influences; with hospitals and ailments being recurring motifs. ‘Syndromes and a Century' (2006), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, was a tribute to his parents and the narrative is set almost entirely in hospitals, one in rural Thailand and the other in Bangkok.
After completing his degree in architecture from Thailand, Apichatpong received a master's degree in Fine Arts in filmmaking from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 1997. This is the year when, following the Asian financial crisis, the Thai film industry nearly came to a standstill with the number of films made there dwindling to a mere 10.
Apichatpong recognised the studio system as being one of the root causes of this crisis, and in 1999 he set up his own production house Kick The Machine with the long-term goal of promoting and producing his own works and those of other filmmakers and artistes.
In the new millennium, independent films saw resurgence in Thailand under the leadership of filmmakers such as Apichatpong, Aditya Assarat, Pimpaka Towira and the like.
In 2002 his feature ‘Blissfully Yours,' won the Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. The story of an illegal Burmese immigrant and his affair with an older Thai woman, the film was heavily censored before its DVD release in Thailand. The title sequence of this film was revolutionary in that it appears 45 minutes into the film. “That's when the story really begins. What precedes it is only an introduction,” says Apichatpong.
In 2004 ‘Tropical Malady' won the Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It was the first Thai film to be in the main competition at Cannes or win a prize at any of the ‘A' festivals. This film, unsurprisingly, did not run for more than 10 days in Thailand.
Despite winning critical acclaim and accolades internationally, Apichatpong's films are rarely popular in his own country. He is often accused of making films that are inaccessible and exclusionary. Apichatpong's response to this is that the “audience need not get everything.” His films are structurally baffling with parallel realities merging seamlessly within the same narrative.
His first film ‘Mysterious Object at Noon' was modelled on the French surrealist game ‘Exquisite corpse.' And in true surrealist fashion, time in his films is often defined and controlled by memory.
He invites the viewer to allow his mind to drift “like when we sit on a train” or “jump from branch to branch like a monkey.”
To Apichatpong the process of filmmaking is an organic one. He works mostly with non-professional actors and he often lets them define their characters. In ‘Syndromes and a Century' he cast the woman who played the elderly doctor because she reminded him of his mother's friend.
Defining ties with nature
Through his films Apichatpong also tries to define our relationship with nature, often contrasting its serenity with the concrete, claustrophobia-inducing confines of cities.
Many times in the course of his career Apichatpong has had to fight against censorship. When the Thai Censorship Board insisted he cut four scenes from his film ‘Syndromes and a Century' he refused, opting instead to not release it in Thailand. He, along with fellow filmmakers Wisit Sasantieng and Pen-ek Ratanaruang, protested outside the parliament building with banners that read ‘No Freedom. No Democracy. No Peace.'
He has also produced 33 short films and a number of installation art pieces for galleries around the world.
Apichatpong at IFFK
Apichatpong will attend is attending the 15th International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram as a member of the jury. Five his films will be shown as part of the ‘Contemporary Masters in Focus' package of the fete.
‘Syndromes and a Century'
Mysterious Object at Noon'
‘Tropical Malady'
‘Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives'
‘Blissfully Yours'
