Notes on…

Memoria(2021)

Dir. Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul


In maybe the most truthful scene set in a mixing studio [the] dialogue scans as hilarious—at one point Jessica asks that the audio be made “earthy,” at another more “round”—but within this interaction we can locate the roots of so much: art, criticism, life; the attempt to weave form from the void, order from nothing; the irony that humanity has settled upon unwieldy language as our primary tool from which to make sense of experience; how words always leave so much just out of reach—a feeling any critic of Apichatpong’s consistently slippery work to date has surely and sorely felt.

Jeff Reichert (Reverse Shot)

* * * *

Synopsis: One morning, Jessica Holland, a Scottish orchid farmer visiting her sister in Bogotá, is woken by a loud ‘bang’. This haunting sound dispels her sleep for days, calling into question her identity and guiding her from recording studios to secluded jungle villages in an attempt to find its source.