When a group of Thai soldiers comes down with a mysterious sleeping sickness, they are moved to a temporary clinic set up in a former school. The building, filled with traces of its past, becomes a place of quiet transformation for Jenjira, a volunteer who cares for a young soldier with no visitors. As Jen spends more time at the clinic, she forms a bond with Keng, a young medium who uses her psychic abilities to help families connect with their unconscious loved ones. Acclaimed writer and director Apichatpong Weerasethakul creates a gently hypnotic and deeply original film that explores memory, mysticism, and the subtle presence of Thailand’s political and military history.

Reviews

‘This is the same wondrous journey on which Apichatpong sends his audience: inwards and downwards, to a place where the simplest rhythms of everyday life become hallowed and mythic.’
★★★★
Robbie Collin, The Telegraph

‘Cemetery of Splendour is a whisper of a film that can only cast its spell if you let your breathing slow and give yourself over to the urgency of its spectral dimension.’
★★★★
David Ehrlich, Time Out