Much like his second feature film Blissfully Yours in 2002, serene stillness is the first impression we get from Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria (in local cinemas tomorrow). Everything remains silent for a long period of time, but suddenly there's a loud booming sound resounding in the head of Jessica, played by Tilda Swinton, a British expat living in Colombia. The noise is loud enough to wake her up from the bed of her hotel room, as she begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome. It forces Jessica out to the city and through the jungle in search of the source of the sound. From that moment on, the sound plays a crucial role to the story in Memoria. While this strange sound is the main inspiration for the film, it is also what Apichatpong has been struggling with over the past few years.
"As some of you may know, the experience of the film is my own experience of having something called exploding head syndrome that is getting especially bad in the morning. And so I try to share this experience with the film in the process," said the 51-year-old director about his noise-related medical condition during a recent exclusive roundtable interview where he appeared alongside British actress Tilda Swinton just before the Thailand premiere of Memoria at CentralWorld.
