A lady doctor interviews an army doctor in the jungle. Playful, funny and touching study in time and transformation from leading Thai experimental filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady).
Screened as part of NZIFF 2007
Syndromes and a Century 2006
Thailand's leading experimental filmmaker, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, returns with another cinematic enigma.
“Like his earlier Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady, …Syndromes is another Weerasethakul diptych that feels like two asymmetrical half-movies regarding each other through a wonderfully distorted looking glass. In the first, a young lady doctor at a rural Thai hospital interviews an army doctor who has just reported for work… Then, about an hour into the movie, the lady doctor is again interviewing the army doctor, only this time the camera angles and costumes are different, and the jungle surrounding the hospital is more urban than tropical. Is it a dream? Have we flashed forward in time? You will not find those answers in Syndromes and a Century any sooner than you would in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. But those who can free their minds of such narrative prisons, as Weerasethakul so clearly wants us to, will find here a playful, funny and touching study in time and transformation.” — Scott Foundas, LA Weekly