Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Directed by Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is a beautifully deliberate and ethereal meditation on existence and spirituality. Suffering from kidney failure, the kindly Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is joined by his sister-in-law Jen (Jenjira Pongpas) and nephew Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee) on his jungle farm. Seemingly at peace with his fate, Boonmee is visited by the ghost of his wife, Huay (Natthakarn Aphaiwong), as well as his son, Boonsong (Jeerasak Kulhong), returning in the form of an enigmatic monkey spirit. Though these developments sound eerie, the viewer is put at ease due to Boonmee's nonchalant embracing of the apparitions. Mysterious tangents (including an aging princess's sexual tryst with a catfish) and references to Thai and Buddhist traditions may cloud the understanding of Western audiences, but the tale is a mesmerizing mystery conveyed with care by the director and his gentle characters. Shot in 16mm as an homage to Thai movies of old, the film uses static shots almost exclusively, allowing the focus to remain on the action in-frame. Uncle Boonmee explores what Weerasethakul calls the karmic "transmigration of souls" between humans and all other beings, which he claims extends to cinema; the viewer adopts the film as a type of "simulated memory," becoming part of this fluid and fleeting existence.