Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Directing

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Born 1970-07-16 · Bangkok, Thailand

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His feature films include Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or prize; Tropical Malady, which won a jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival; Blissfully Yours, which won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard program at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival; and Syndromes and a Century, which premiered at the 63rd Venice Film Festival and was the first Thai film to be entered in competition there. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Weerasethakul has directed several features and dozens of short films. Themes reflected in his films (frequently discussed in interviews) include dreams, nature, sexuality (including his own homosexuality), and Western perceptions of Thailand and Asia, and his films display a preference for unconventional narrative structures (like placing titles/credits at the middle of a film) and for working with non-actors.

Acting credits

Uncertain Path poster
NR

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pedro Costa, Manoel de Oliveira y and the film's director, with their own personal views, share that thin line that links life with cinema.

Uncertain Path

2021

Tony Rayns, the Not-So-Distant Observer poster
8.0

Prominent film critic Tony Rayns has long been a supporter of Korean cinema. This film illustrates Rayns’ affection for Korean cinema through interviews of Korean cineastes that have a special affinity for him, including JANG Sun-woo, LEE Chang-dong and HONG Sang-soo among others.

Tony Rayns, the Not-So-Distant Observer

2012

The Legend of the Palme d'Or poster
6.0

From Martin Scorsese to Jane Campion, from Emir Kusturica to Quentin Tarantino, some of the greatest recipients of this trophy recall special moments relating to the award ceremony which closes the Cannes Film Festival. This film brings to light moving and personal stories, as surprising as they are varied, which all contribute to further enhancing the legend of the Palme d’Or.

The Legend of the Palme d'Or

2015

Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema poster
7.1

With Taiwan remaining in the grip of martial law in 1982, a group of filmmakers from that country set out to establish a cultural identity through cinema and to share it with the world. This engaging documentary looks at the movement's legacy.

Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema

2014

Cinema Futures poster
6.2

Analog celluloid strips are disappearing. Is film dying, or just changing? Are the world's film archives on the brink of a dark age? Renowned filmmakers, museum curators, historians, and engineers help dramatize the future of film and the cinema in the age of digital moving pictures.

Cinema Futures

2016

Past Present poster
6.3

A contemplative trip down memory lane with one of the leading voices of the Second New Wave of Taiwanese Cinema. Saw Tiong Guan clearly established a very personal bond with his subject, and also found many of Tsai Ming-liang’s colleagues prepared to complete this portrait of a quiet yet outspoken artist.

Past Present

2013

A.W. A Portrait of Apichatpong Weerasethakul poster
7.5

Canadian actor and filmmaker Connor Jessup (Closet Monster, Falling Skies) profiles Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a maverick of Thai cinema who explores the slippery nature of time and consciousness with a sublimely idiosyncratic, often surreal approach to film form.

A.W. A Portrait of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

2018

Behind the Blur poster
4.0

An insightful documentary about Thai cinema, which features a colourful and long running film history, yet struggles as the industry attempts to move forward. This film examines the past and focuses on the Thai New Wave since 1997 by combining film clips, and interviews from Thai directors and others artists, like Asian hip-hop sensation Thaitanium, who are trying to create a more personal style of art.

Behind the Blur

2009

Mekong Hotel poster
5.5

Shifting between fact and fiction in a hotel situated along the Mekong River, a filmmaker rehearses a movie expressing the bonds between a vampire-like mother and daughter.

Mekong Hotel

2012

No artwork available
NR

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's solo exhibition "PHOTOPHOBIA" is held commemorating the 5th anniversary of the opening of Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery @KCUA.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul Solo Exhibition - PHOTOPHOBIA

2014

Wiara poster
NR

Six authorities of cinema describe their approach to transcendence, mysticism, spirituality and life after dead.

Wiara

2018

Le bureau qui avait peur poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Le bureau qui avait peur

2024

Thirdworld poster
7.0

A depiction of the landscape, both metaphorically and realistically, of Panyi island. Some footage in the film was taken from the material shot for Mysterious Object at Noon.

Thirdworld

1999

Circulation poster
NR

This film is a Movies strip that consists of 365 frames. The actor is actually moving in one direction but appears to swing like a pendulum on the screen. Sporadic booms of the soundtrack reveal the relationship between the human pendulum movement, the rhythm of the soundtrack and its perforations, and the object split into individual frames.

Circulation

1998

Behind the camera

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives poster
6.6

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave—the birthplace of his first life.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

2010

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives poster
6.6

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave—the birthplace of his first life.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

2010

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives poster
6.6

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave—the birthplace of his first life.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

2010

Memoria poster
6.0

After hearing a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, a Scottish woman begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia.

Memoria

2021

Memoria poster
6.0

After hearing a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, a Scottish woman begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia.

Memoria

2021

Memoria poster
6.0

After hearing a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, a Scottish woman begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia.

Memoria

2021

Venice 70: Future Reloaded poster
5.0

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Venice 70: Future Reloaded

2013

30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing poster
5.3

Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all shot on iPhones.

30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing

2019

Vapour poster
6.0

The clouds descend onto a village and engulf it for a day. They touch the roof tiles, the beds, the chairs, the carpets, the grass, and the bodies, infecting everything with the fever of white stupor.

Vapour

2015

Vapour poster
6.0

The clouds descend onto a village and engulf it for a day. They touch the roof tiles, the beds, the chairs, the carpets, the grass, and the bodies, infecting everything with the fever of white stupor.

Vapour

2015

Sakda (Rousseau) poster
6.0

Created in celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, this short essay centres on a monologue delivered by a reincarnation of the philosopher in twenty-first century Thailand.

Sakda (Rousseau)

2012

Cemetery of Splendor poster
6.0

In a hospital, ten soldiers are being treated for a mysterious sleeping sickness. In a story in which dreams can be experienced by others, and in which goddesses can sit casually with mortals, a nurse learns the reason why the patients will never be cured, and forms a telepathic bond with one of them.

Cemetery of Splendor

2015

Cemetery of Splendor poster
6.0

In a hospital, ten soldiers are being treated for a mysterious sleeping sickness. In a story in which dreams can be experienced by others, and in which goddesses can sit casually with mortals, a nurse learns the reason why the patients will never be cured, and forms a telepathic bond with one of them.

Cemetery of Splendor

2015

Cemetery of Splendor poster
6.0

In a hospital, ten soldiers are being treated for a mysterious sleeping sickness. In a story in which dreams can be experienced by others, and in which goddesses can sit casually with mortals, a nurse learns the reason why the patients will never be cured, and forms a telepathic bond with one of them.

Cemetery of Splendor

2015

Tropical Malady poster
6.7

The passionate relationship between two men with unusual consequences. The film is divided in two parts. The first half charts the modest attraction between two men in the sunny, relaxing countryside and the second half charts the confusion and terror of an unknown menace lurking deep within the jungle shadows.

Tropical Malady

2004

Tropical Malady poster
6.7

The passionate relationship between two men with unusual consequences. The film is divided in two parts. The first half charts the modest attraction between two men in the sunny, relaxing countryside and the second half charts the confusion and terror of an unknown menace lurking deep within the jungle shadows.

Tropical Malady

2004

Blissfully Yours poster
6.4

In Thailand, an illegal immigrant from Myanmar with a mysterious skin rash, his girlfriend, and her friend visit the doctor's before spending the afternoon on individual and collective adventures.

Blissfully Yours

2002

Blissfully Yours poster
6.4

In Thailand, an illegal immigrant from Myanmar with a mysterious skin rash, his girlfriend, and her friend visit the doctor's before spending the afternoon on individual and collective adventures.

Blissfully Yours

2002

Luminous People poster
NR

A recreation of an event to commemorate the presence of the dead and the decayed memories of the living, of filmmaking

Luminous People

2007

Jenjira's Magnificent Dream poster
NR

Jenjira, a Thai widow, travels to the ancient Buddhist temple Sigiriya in Sri Lanka to scatter her husband’s ashes. As her visions blur time and space, she is swept into a journey through across dimensions.

Jenjira's Magnificent Dream

Jenjira's Magnificent Dream poster
NR

Jenjira, a Thai widow, travels to the ancient Buddhist temple Sigiriya in Sri Lanka to scatter her husband’s ashes. As her visions blur time and space, she is swept into a journey through across dimensions.

Jenjira's Magnificent Dream

Jenjira's Magnificent Dream poster
NR

Jenjira, a Thai widow, travels to the ancient Buddhist temple Sigiriya in Sri Lanka to scatter her husband’s ashes. As her visions blur time and space, she is swept into a journey through across dimensions.

Jenjira's Magnificent Dream

The Year of the Everlasting Storm poster
6.4

Featuring seven stories from seven auteurs from around the world, the film chronicles this unprecedented moment in time, and is a true love letter to the power of cinema and its storytellers.

The Year of the Everlasting Storm

2021

A Flower of Forgetfulness poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

A Flower of Forgetfulness

2026