Mekong Hotel

Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

CinemAsia / Thailand / 2012 / Experimental, Narrative / 56 mins / Thai with English subtitles / B&W / DVD / World Premiere

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Description

Mekong Hotel continues the unconventional experimentation and dreamlike artistry that has made Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century) an essential figure in world cinema. The Mekong Hotel near the Thailand/Laos border provides the setting; Tong (Sakda Kaewattana) and Phon (Maiyatan Techaparn) ponder life, death and love in one “existence,” while Phon’s mother’s ghost haunts a room in another, occasionally even feasting on entrails. And in yet a third existence, the actor playing the ghost recounts her real-life memories of armed conflict in the region during the 1960s and 70s. Through it all, the Mekong River continues to float by, bloated by the floods of 2011. Merging documentary and fiction and the everyday and the supernatural, with onscreen characters shifting between their “otherworldly” and “real” selves, Mekong Hotel is an enigmatic, magical portrait of a hotel, a region and a nation.

Co-presented by: Asian Contemporary Arts Consortium, Oakland Asian Cultural Center

Credits

Executive Producer: Simon Field, Keith Griffiths
Producer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Cinematographer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Writer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Editor: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Sound: Chalermrat Kaweewattana

Preceded By

Advantageous

Jennifer Phang / USA / 2012 / Narrative Fiction, Short / 23 mins
Set in 2041, this deeply moving short from Jennifer Phang (Half-Life) depicts a mother’s struggle and sacrifice to ensure her daughter’s future in a time when education and employment is limited.
Precedes: Mekong Hotel