Tropical Malady

Screening on Film

Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
With Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee.
Thailand/France/Germany/Italy, 2004, 35mm, color, 118 min.
Thai with English subtitles.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Tropical Malady is the latest film from the Thai New Wave’s visionary director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. A mystical love affair between a young soldier and a shy country boy is interrupted when the boy mysteriously disappears and the film’s narrative stops in its tracks. The second half of the film, nearly wordless, shifts to the jungle, and allegory, as the soldier pursues a mythical tiger who legend claims is his lost lover. Noted for its formal audaciousness and visual splendor, Tropical Malady’s love story transcends realism to an enigmatic contemplation of desire.