Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

2010 / 114min / DCP

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.

“I'm fascinated by how Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives operates like a myth or spiritual tale, a ghost story passed down through generations. 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