Apichatpong Weerasethakul's CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR (2015)

7th House is proud to bring the work of visionary Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul to The Philosophical Research Society, with his quietly mesmerizing exploration of sleep, memory, and hidden history —CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR (2015).

Cemetery of Splendor unfolds in a quiet Thai town where a group of soldiers afflicted with a mysterious sleeping sickness are transferred to a makeshift clinic — the site of the former elementary school of Jenjira (Jen), a gentle, middle-aged housewife and volunteer caretaker. There the soldiers are treated using an unusual method: luminous poles installed beside their beds slowly shift in color, soothing their dream-troubled minds while transforming the ward into a curious piece of illuminated installation art. The memory-laden corridors quietly awaken fragments of Jen's own past, as she watches over Itt, a handsome soldier with no family visitors. As he lies suspended between waking and sleep, Jen and Itt form an intimate bond. With the help of Keng, a young woman whose supposed psychic abilities once attracted the attention of the FBI, they soon discover that 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.

A hypnagogic masterwork, CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR exemplifies Apichatpong Weerasethakul's singular cinematic language—one rooted in stillness, spiritual curiosity, and the porous boundaries between the visible and invisible. Central to Weerasethakul’s work is the idea of a secret world—whether historical, political, or metaphysical—hidden just behind our visible one, and his films gently peel back reality’s surface to reveal these submerged layers. Gorgeous, tender, and oneiric, his films drift effortlessly between the everyday and the mythic, blending folklore, political memory, and personal reverie into a hypnotic whole. With a rhythm as seemingly attuned to breath and somatic sensation as narrative propulsion, Weerasethakul invites viewers into a meditative state, where time loosens and meaning arrives obliquely, like a dream remembered upon waking. Here, this approach crystalizes into something profoundly resonant, an exploration of slumber—private, vulnerable, and collective—as a permeable site of connection, where memory, fantasy, and history entwine while the living, the dreaming, and the long-buried quietly converge.

Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015, 122 mins, Thailand, Thai w/ English Subtitles, Unrated, Digital.

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