Memoria: A fine existential detective story

WHAT to make of the slow and spellbinding film Memoria? Like all the feature films of Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul, it is a puzzle film that needs to be patiently deciphered - and perhaps not even after one viewing. There are clues abound, but they are either so subtle or so fully mystifying, it would take a second or third viewing to piece them together.

Memoria marks Apichatpong's first English- and Spanish-language film after 20 years of making only Thai-language features. He's nabbed a Hollywood actress to star in it, namely the reigning queen of serious cinema Tilda Swinton, who has a knack for lending poise and plausibility to some of the world's most enigmatic films.

And unlike other Asian arthouse helmers who've tried to break into English-language cinema (such as Park Chan-wook, Wong Kar Wai and Tran Anh Hung) with limited success, Apichatpong has emerged unequivocally triumphant. Memoria was not only the Jury Prize winner at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, it was voted Film Of The Year 2021 by the London Film Critics Circle.