The well-known Thai film maker, Apitchapong watched his film in the Apitchapong focus of IFFK at the New theatre along with the delegates. He was felicitated before the screening of the film and with his own typical style of grabbing hearts; his two minute talk made him “the delegates’ favourite”.
Apitchapong’s latest film, “Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives” was the film that was screened at the 5th day of the 15th IFFK. The fantastic, bizzare and the supernatural intermingle in this film which adopts a linear narrative. The ill uncle Boonmee is dying and considers it the upshot of his bad deeds in his life time. His dead wife appears. So also his son who was living with a ‘monkey ghost’ for the last fifteen years. Animals and spirits are a major presence in the film. The journey to a cave becomes a rewinding to the past. Mortality and the displacement that follow death are riddles which are woven into the myth. The imagery is beautiful, so also the balancing of the quaint with the mythical. Apitchapong’s films clearly etch a lot of what is personal, and here, Uncle Bonmee carries in himself a combination of the film maker, his father and a ‘real life Uncle Boonmee”.
“After a heavy lunch, the movie meandering in complete silence, it lulled me to a perfect sleep”, says Joshi a doctor by profession, who is a 7th time IFFK delegate. He said that had he known, the film was made by the same film maker of “Tropical Melody”, he would have never watched it. Many opined that Apitchapong’s films are the best sleeping potions. But a small section of the delegates share a totally different opinion, which cannot be denied even by those who are at loggerheads with Apitchapong. The excellent shot composition literally awes the spectators that his films offer a bewitching visual experience.