Mysterious Object at Noon (Dokfa nai meuman)

Restored 35mm print from Cineteca di Bologna

Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Thailand, 2000. 83 mins. Restored 35mm print. In Thai with English subtitles. With Djuangjai Hirunsri, Kongkiat Khomsiri, Saisiri Xoomsai. A recent film-school graduate, Apichatpong Weerasethakul brought an appetite for experimentation to his feature debut, an uncategorizable work that refracts documentary impressions of Thailand through the concept of the exquisite corpse game. Enlisting locals to contribute their own improvised narration to a simple tale, Apichatpong charts the collective construction of the fiction as each new encounter imbues it with unpredictable shades of fantasy and pathos. Shot over the course of two years in 16mm black and white, this playful investigation of the art of storytelling established the fascination with the porous boundaries between the real and the imagined that the director has continued to explore.

Restored in 2013 by the Austrian Film Museum and Cineteca di Bologna/L’immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with the Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, LISTO laboratory in Vienna, Technicolor Ltd in Bangkok, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Restoration funded by Doha Film Institute.

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