Memoria

Released in 2021, Memoria is the first feature shot outside Thailand by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the Palme d'Or-winning director of Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Filmed in Colombia after years of research with sound engineers and Bogotá residents, the film premiered in Competition at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, where it shared the Jury Prize with Nadav Lapid's Ahed's Knee. Colombia later submitted it for the 94th Academy Awards Best International Feature race.

Tilda Swinton, in her first leading role for Apichatpong, plays Jessica with the patient, attentive register the director reserves for many of his protagonists. The Colombian sound designer Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr (a long-standing Apichatpong collaborator) builds the film around a single recurring sonic event, designed in 5.1 with the pop musician César López, and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom shoots Bogotá and the Quindío highlands in long, watchful takes that linger on weather, traffic and ordinary buildings.

The film's release strategy was as discussed as the film itself: in much of the world, the distributor Neon committed to a single-cinema, no-streaming model, intended to keep the work tied to theatrical exhibition. Memoria received strong notices in Cahiers du Cinéma, Sight & Sound and Film Comment, and IndieWire later included it in its 100 Best Films of the 2020s So Far. It remains one of the defining contemporary art films of the post-pandemic festival circuit.