MEKONG HOTEL
In a hotel overlooking the Mekong River, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and his team are rehearsing for a film about a meeting on a hotel terrace on the banks of the Mekong between Phon, and young girl, and Tong, a young man. The young girl discovers the existence of cannibalistic ghosts known as “pobs”.
The synopsis of Mekong Hotel mentions your shuffling of different “realms”. Seen in terms of levels of “reality” this seems very characteristic of many of your films but here you also speak of “fact and fiction” and the film shifts constantly between the two.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul : I think I am pretending to mean reality when I say “fact”. But in movies, reality doesn’t exist. One is just trying to capture moments and reconstruct them to stimulate your view, your understanding. This film is conscious of these layers and levels of distortion. So I think that it can be called a “documentary” in a classical sense. It is a contemplation on making a fiction.
(Mekong Hotel Press kit, 2012)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul was born in 1970 in Bangkok. In 2000, he made his first film, a conceptual documentary, Mysterious Object at Noon. This was followed by Blissfully Yours, a critical success that won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. It is the first part of a trilogy with Tropical Malady and Syndromes and a Century. In 2010, he won the Palme d’Or for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. In 2015, he directed Cemetery of Splendour and Fever Room, a projection-performance piece. In 2021, Memoria, shot in Colombia with Tilda Swinton, won a Jury Prize in the official competition at Cannes.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul is also internationally recognized as a major visual artist. Since 1998, he has been creating exhibitions and installations around the world. He lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Maiyatan Techarpan, Chai Bhatana, Chatchai Suban, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Jenjira Pongpas
Illuminations Films (Simon Field, Keith Griffiths), Kick the Machine Films (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Chalermrat Kaweewattana
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Chai Bhatana
Jour2Fête - eglantine.stasiecki@jour2fete.com
