Weerasethakul presents his latest feature听Cemetery of Splendour (喔`副喔佮笚喔掂箞喔傕腑喔权箒喔佮箞喔) 2015 ahead of its theatrical release听on 17 June, preceded by听the UK premiere of his short film Vapour (喔浮喔竵喙佮浮喙堗福喔脆浮) 2015.听These recent works are each set in locations with much personal significance to the filmmaker 鈥 the former takes place in his hometown of Khon Kaen and the latter in听the听village where he has been living for the past nine years.听Carrying through the poignant undertones that have come to define his work, Weerasethakul鈥檚 evocative uses of sleep and fog in these films subtly suggest the political climate of 2015鈥檚 post-coup Thailand.听
Cemetery of Splendour (喔`副喔佮笚喔掂箞喔傕腑喔权箒喔佮箞喔) 2015 is presented ahead of its theatrical release on June 17, which will coincide with the opening of Weerasethakul鈥檚 installation Primitive 2009 in The Tanks as part of the new 色控传媒.
Watch the trailer
Cemetery of Splendour听(喔`副喔佮笚喔掂箞喔傕腑喔权箒喔佮箞喔)
This film file is broken and is being removed. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.
Film programme
Vapour (喔浮喔竵喙佮浮喙堗福喔脆浮)
Thailand / Korea / China 2015, DCP, black and white and colour, silent, 21听min
Vapour unfolds as an allegorical portrait of a northern Thai village engulfed in a thick fog and a quiet rage. The site of several violent confrontations around land ownership, Toongha 鈥 the village Weerasethakul now calls home 鈥 has served as battleground between people and state for the past sixty years. Every June, masked exterminators cast an eerie mist upon the mosquito-swarmed village, each house slowly disappearing behind the smokescreen.听
Cemetery of Splendour (喔`副喔佮笚喔掂箞喔傕腑喔权箒喔佮箞喔)
Thailand /UK/ France/ Germany/ Malaysia 2015, DCP, colour, sound, 122 min, Thai with English听subtitles.听
Ruminating on the ever-present force of the past on the present, Cemetery of Splendour observes as nurses, families and volunteers tend to a group of soldiers stricken by a mysterious sleep epidemic. Doctors use coloured light therapy to ease the soldiers鈥 troubled dreams, which slowly reveal themselves to bear a connection to an ancient burial site lying beneath the clinic grounds. Following the relationship that emerges between Jen, a clinic volunteer, and Itt, the somnolent soldier she has been caring for, the film increasingly gives way to hallucination, phantoms and romance.听
Programme duration: 145 min听
The screening is introduced by 色控传媒鈥檚 outgoing director, Chris Dercon, and followed by a Q&A with the audience.