Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
All Films
•
1h 53m
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul | 113 mins | 2010
Winner of the 2010 Palme d’Or at Cannes, Apichatpong’s film follows its fatally ill title character (Thanapat Saisaymar) on a final pilgrimage of sorts, traveling the countryside of Thailand’s rural northeast where he encounters long-lost loved ones including an apparition of his dead wife and his son, who makes his prodigal return in the form of a “Monkey Ghost.” A visionary, dreamlike work of lush magic realism that draws from the deep well of Thai mythology and history, proposing an animistic view of the natural world in which there’s nothing unusual about the appearance of a catfish who speaks, and where the possibility of regeneration awaits at the precipice of death.
“Apichatpong, one of my favorite directors, approaches this material with a lush, slow rhythm that’s deeply rooted in the land. I love that it’s less a traditional narrative and more a meditation, where, as Uncle Boonmee prepares for the afterlife, memories and specters of his wife and other mystical beings begin to quietly emerge. It inspires me deeply.” —Tyler Mitchell
Up Next in All Films
-
Unmade Beds
Leaving June 1
Directed by Amos Poe | 70 mins | 1976
Jean-Paul Belmondo’s character in "Breathless" (1960) thought he was Humphrey Bogart; Duncan Hannah’s character in this proto-No Wave work—a restless poseur slash photographer named Rico—thinks he’s Jean-Paul Belmondo. Released the same year a... -
Variety
Leaving June 1
Directed by Bette Gordon | 100 mins | 1983
A young woman lands a job as a cashier at a downtown porno theater, and soon finds herself inexorably drawn towards what’s happening onscreen—as well as other troubling fantasies. One of the great independent films of the ’80s, featuring ... -
Victoria
Directed by Sebastian Schipper | 138 mins | 2015
Eschewing the digitally composited “single take” of "Birdman" for the real-deal, in-camera approach seen in "Russian Ark," this electric German thriller follows the titular Victoria (Laia Costa), a young Spanish woman who stumbles out of an early-h...
