‘Overwhelming and sublime’: the primal power of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s cinematic art

The Cannes-winning film-maker’s latest work, created specially for Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, is a tribute to his obsession with the magic of light and shadowGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailAs a child, while other kids were playing with toys, Apichatpong Weerasethakul was content with a flashlight. “That was enough: the shadows on the wall or the blanket,” he says. “I chose to work in cinema because of that feeling of taking me back to childhood, that freedom and curiosity.”This primal fascination with light and shadow has fuelled a career spanning three decades, across experimental features and video works, feted by the likes of the Cannes film festival and London’s Tate Modern. It’s also produced some of contemporary cinema’s most captivating and puzzling imagery – from the talking animals of his 2004 psychological drama Tropical Malady to the ghosts and human-catfish sex in his hallucinatory 2010 Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. His most recent film, 2021’s Memoria, starring Tilda Swinton as a woman haunted by a rumbling boom only she can hear, features a startling image of an alien spacecraft rising out of the Colombian jungle.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

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