THAILAND – 2015 – DCP - 122 MINS - 1:1.85 - 7.1 AND 5.1 SURROUND SOUND - IN THAI WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL

Soldiers with a mysterious sleeping sickness are transferred to a temporary clinic in a former school. The memory-filled space becomes a revelatory world for housewife and volunteer Jenjira, as she watches over Itt, a handsome soldier with no family visitors. Jen befriends young medium Keng who uses her psychic powers to help loved ones communicate with the comatose men. Doctors explore ways, including coloured light therapy, to ease the mens’ troubled dreams. Jen discovers Itt’s cryptic notebook of strange writings and blueprint sketches. There may be a connection between the soldiers’ enigmatic syndrome and the mythic ancient site that lies beneath the clinic. Magic, healing, romance and dreams are all part of Jen’s tender path to a deeper awareness of herself and the world around her.

 

 

4 stars! "Cemetery of Splendour explores our sleeping and waking minds"
- Globe and Mail

“A farewell letter to Thailand.” That’s how Apichatpong Weerasethakul describes his spellbinding feature film, Cemetery of Splendour, set in his hometown of Khon Kaen."
- Globe and Mail (Interview)

Golden Slumbers
- Toronto Film Scene (Interview)

"a mystifying and wondrous experience."
- Way Too Indie

"intriguing, captivating and rich in dreamy thoughts with a touch of humour."
- AZN Modern

4 Stars! "a haunting film with hypnotic effect. It will make you to watch it with eyes wide open"
- Movie Moves Me

"Using sleeping sickness as a political metaphor" - Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul on the making of his film Cemetery Of Splendour
- NOW Magazine

"moments of swooning beauty and unexpected comedy"
- NOW Magazine

"another sublime effort from one of the best filmmakers working today"
- Way Too Indie (Interview)

"It was my first time watching a Weerasethakul film and if anything, it is a gift for someone who loves film that experiments with the medium in an almost spiritual way."
- Next Projection

"24 hours after an initial viewing, individual shots — none of which are wasted, even as Splendour becomes a tad less intriguing in regards to the conflicts within them — stick in the brain, each creating an association with another, and another, and another. I remain content with luxuriating in them, their overwhelming soundtrack, and the singular sense of vision that makes nearly everything indispensable; it’s okay to delay ineffable matters when there’s little reason to believe they’ll drift away."
- The Film Stage

"CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR wants to take the serenity of unconsciousness and put it on the screen, and to that end the film is a success."
- The Matinee

"You drift between wakefulness and somnolence, sucked in by the mesmerizing, languid rhythms lapping against the outsides of your eyelids. You’re drawn deeper, deeper … deeper still, deeper into the cinema."
- Globe and Mail

"haunted and haunting"
- Vue Weekly

"resonates deeply as a movie made by someone with total command of his form."
- Roger Ebert

Interview with Cemetery of Splendour’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- Next Projection

"Definitely for art house fanatics, and it’s absolutely made to be watched in a cinema where the colours and sound design will be best represented."
- Toronto Film Scene

3.5 stars out of 4 " a film that feels like a true meditation – on life, death, past, present, religion, spirituality: essentially, the building blocks of our common humanity."
- Movie Mezzanine

"mystical, hilarious and eerie and centred by a staggering performance by Jengira Pongpas Widner"
- Torontoist

"Cemetery Of Splendour is cinematic poetry in storytelling."
- Next Projection

"CEMETERY is funny, very subtly political and typical Apichatpong Weerasethakul"
- Toronto-Franco