Cemetery of Splendour

Echoes of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's previous films (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palme D'Or at Cannes) reverberate around this languid meditation on spirits, deities, memory, patriotism and mortality. At the core is the relationship between Banlop Lomnoi, a soldier suffering from a mysterious sleeping sickness, and disabled volunteer Jenjira Pongpas Widner, who communicates with her patient through medium Jarinpattra Rueangram at a makeshift clinic in Khon Kaen, north-east Thailand. Typically, Weerasethakul dots the measured and meticulously composed action with moments of quirky humour (one involving an erection). But the sight of goddesses at large in the human sphere proves as beguiling as the therapeutic light display captured in all its glowing glory by cinematographer Diego Garcia. It's possible to detect an allegorical discussion of Thailand's recent travails, but this distinctive blend of lyricism and mysticism is to be experienced as much as understood.