Acclaimed director Apichatpong Weerasethakul presents a film set in the Jungles of Colombia.
A new teaser trailer for the film Memoria has dropped, building anticipation for its premiere.
The film revolves around a Scottish woman (Tilda Swinton) who suffers from a sensory syndrome and frequently hears sounds following her. We watch as she tries to make sense of what she’s hearing, leading her to the Colombian Jungle. Besides this brief description, the film mostly remains vague in regards to narrative.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, writer and director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul explained more about the inspiration of the film.
“So I decided to start travelling in Colombia. And during that time, before going there for a few months, I developed the symptoms of Exploding Head Syndrome. It’s a medical condition where you just hear a loud noise — in the morning mostly when you’re waking up. So that accompanied me during the trip.”
The director also mentioned his love for Latin America Culture and always wanted to write a film about mysterious jungles. Being his first film outside of Thailand, he was excited to work with new studios and people. One person, in particular, being Tilda Swinton, who was envisioned to play the main role since the film’s inception.
Trailer Review
The trailer begins with deep thumping noises before we see Swinton’s character describing the sound to an audio engineer. This is most likely the mysterious sensory syndrome, as the audio engineer attempts to replicate the sound.
The trailer then leads us to various beautiful shots of the main character in multiple locations. Presumably, she is trying to find where the sound comes from. The thumping sound in the background then loses tempo but is replaced by eerie scratching and static noises.
The last dialogue scene we see is between Swinton’s character and what appears to be an archaeologist. The two discuss a skull with a hole before the archaeologist says, “drilled into the head to release spirits.” We can assume that the main character encounters the different ways her syndrome was treated.
The trailer soon ends with more shots and sounds building up and eventually falling silent with the title card in view.
From the trailer alone we can safely assume that sound and audio will be the major motifs of the film. Be that as it may, the amazing visual aspect of the film is not to go unnoticed. The shots and scenes were shot by the director’s long time director of photography, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom who has worked on films such as Suspiria.
Despite the film being mostly unknown, film critics and fans alike wait in anticipation.
Take a look at the trailer below:
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