The Films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Delving into Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films, this book uncovers a plethora of conceptual paradigms. Apichatpong’s films frequently utilize rural Thailand as a backdrop, showcasing daily life, interactions, rituals, and customs, all infused with a Southeast Asian essence. This utilization of local imagery provides a national quality to his works, allowing a global audience to explore both urban and rural aspects of Thai society, along with discourses on history, culture, politics, and practices. Beyond the surface, the films also address universal and intricate themes, transcending cultural boundaries. The book delves into a range of lesser-explored aspects regarding the films and filmmaking of Apichatpong, developing fresh perspectives on the representation of nonhumans, hybrid forms, transmedia plot, technique, production among others. With meticulous analyses of his key works this interdisciplinary study unveils the threads that bind Apichatpong’s creative practice, innovative techniques, and philosophical insights. An essential read for cinephiles, scholars, and seekers of cinematic depth, this book uncovers the vibrant tapestry of meaning within Apichatpong’s enigmatic film-worlds.

Anik Sarkar is Assistant Professor at Salesian College Siliguri. He has contributed to books such as Environmental Postcolonialism (Lexington Books, 2021), Indian Feminist Ecocriticism (Lexington Books, 2022) and the book shortlisted for the recent BSLS book prize: Science Fiction in India (Bloomsbury, 2022). He recently published ＂In Search of a Pathographical Ecopoetics＂ in the Journal of Ecohumanism, and has a forthcoming monograph titled Fabulating Ecologies (Lexington Books).

Jayjit Sarkar is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Raiganj University, India. He is the author of the monograph Illness as Method: Beckett, Kafka, Mann, Woolf and Eliot (Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2019). He is also the co-editor of books such as Border and Bordering: Poetics, Politics, Precariousness (Stuttgart: ibidem Press, 2020) and The Portrait of an Artist as a Pathographer: On Writing Illnesses and Illnesses in Writing (Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2021). He has also written for India Independent Films Live Wire, Newslaundry, and We the World magazine.