Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a prestigious, multi-award winning arthouse filmmaker from Thailand, who is best known for his 2010 Palme d’Or winning feature Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

Apichatpong studied architecture at Khon Kaen University, graduating in 1994 and then moving to America where he studied film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Whilst in the city, he worked as a library technician, immersing himself in a vast catalogue of American experimental films from the 1960s and ‘70s that would influence his early shorts  Bullet (1993), and 0116643225059 (1994), as well as informing much of his later work.

He moved back to Thailand after graduation to work on producing his feature debut Mysterious Object at Noon (2000). “Before I came back I found my view of Thailand entirely changed from before. Perhaps it was because I saw it as a film, and I saw so many beautiful aspects [of Thailand] that could be made into a film, be it the subject, the atmosphere, the sunlight—it was different from before.” Inspired by the surrealist game ‘exquisite corpse’, Mysterious Object is a docu-fiction hybrid that blends together various stories from interviews taken with Thai people across the country into a cinematic jigsaw.

To make the film, Apichatpong borrowed equipment from his former school, asked for funding from his family and set up the independent film production company Kick the Machine so he could apply for international funding. The film premiered at Rotterdam after three years of production, before moving on a festival run that saw the film receive considerable critical acclaim.

Apichatpong followed Mysterious Object with two narrative features: Blissfully Yours (2002) and Tropical Malady (2004) – both which were awarded prizes from Cannes when premiering there. Two unconventionally structured, character-led stories, Blissfully Yours follows a Burmese immigrant after his arrival in Thailand, and Tropical Malady sees a soldier assigned to a post in a small city in rural Thailand who has encounters first with another man, then with a soldier who finds himself under the influence of a spirit. As well as showing a director with an already very well developed authorial approach, these films displayed Apichatpong’s unique, contemplative style and establishing themes (dreams, memory, sexuality, nature, death, and national and cultural identity) that would remain present as his career progressed.

In between these two features, he also co-directed a film with Michael Shaowanasai, The Adventures of Iron Pussy (2003), a project so strange and asynchronous to his perceived style, it is usually ignored in biographies of the director.

Alongside feature making, Apichatpong has developed a considerable volume of experimental shorts, installations and gallery pieces. These include Ashes, which was commissioned by online video platform Mubi, first solo exhibition Primitive, which consisted of a two-channel video installation, seven single-channel videos and Mobile Men, which was commissioned as part of the Stories on Human Rights project. 

Considered by many as his finest achievement, Syndromes and a Century (2007) premiered at Venice to considerable acclaim, and has since appeared on many end of decade lists. His next feature, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), gave the director the widest international exposure he has received to date, winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes and being submitted as Thailand’s Academy Awards entry.

Throughout his filmmaking career, Apichatpong has struggled with censorship in his Thailand, and holds conflicted feelings towards his home country. On his decision to withdraw Syndromes after the Thai government demanded serious cuts, he offered this statement: “I, as a filmmaker, treat my works as I do my own sons or daughters. I don’t care if people are fond of them or despise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts. If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reason, let them be free. There is no reason to mutilate them in fear of the system. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art.”

Having only made the hour long Mekong Hotel since Uncle Boonmee, Apichatpong returned to feature filmmaking with Cemetery of Splendour (2015). His latest and most transparently political film, Cemetery of Splendour follows a group of soldiers afflicted by a sleeping sickness, something that acts as a subtle metaphor for the personal and political dissatisfaction that is strife under Thai’s current dictatorship. Apichatpong has said he will not work again in Thailand if he is to make another feature, and has been working on a performance piece titled Fever Room, which he has been touring.

Cemetery of Splendour is out now in selected cinemas. Apichatpong was recently the subject of an all night Tate retrospective, and Primitive is currently on display in the gallery’s tanks.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is our judge for July’s Film of the Month competition. He’ll offer his incredibly wise words on the three short films with the most votes at the end of the month. Submit your films before the 14th July for the chance to have Joe see and feedback on your films.