Classic IFFR KINO

IFFR KINO #39: Syndromes and a Century (2006)

Hoezo in KINO

We’re back on the big screen for IFFR KINO Season 7, with a film screening every first Wednesday of the month until summer. Next up on 6 April is Syndromes and a Century (2006) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. First screened at the festival in 2007, the film was shot by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, our IFFR 2022 Robby Müller Award recipient.

Credits

Regie
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Cast
Nantarat Sawaddikul, Jaruchai Iamaram, Sophon Pukanok
Genre
drama, romance
Speelduur
105 minutes
Land
Thailand
Taal
Thais
Ondertiteling
English

Storyline

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a master in promoting modern film forms and mythical fantasies, shows in his latest film that he is also good at telling stories using different spaces. The first part of the film is set during the film maker’s childhood that he remembers as ideal, even though the protagonist is modelled on his mother as she was before he was born. The protagonist in the second part is inspired by the film maker’s father. But the story is told more through the locations than the characters. First there is the pleasant, sunny and verdant hospital of the female psychiatrist Toey (the later mother). Before that, Weerasethakul returned to the surroundings of his (early) childhood in Khon Kaen, a town in northeastern Thailand closer to the countryside of Laos than to Bangkok, and allowed the pastoral surroundings to shape the tone of these almost jovial sketches. In the second part, the film shifts considerably in time and space to a bleak present-day hospital in Bangkok. The surroundings do not just change the look of the film: the whole tone and approach become alienating.