Being Like Water: Tilda Swinton and Apichatpong Weerasethakul on MEMORIA

This week, we have a special bonus episode courtesy of our Latin American podcast MUBI Podcast: Encuentros. To celebrate the exclusive release of MEMORIA on MUBI in many countries, we're excited to share this discussion between Tilda Swinton and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Swinton and Weerasethakul reunited in Colombia for MEMORIA's release and talked about the importance of understanding that you’re not in control and how cinema is an attempt to put what’s inside one’s head on screen, something they achieved through sound.

This conversation touches on the creative process of two of film’s greatest names while working together on the film, which was an intimate collaboration founded on their long friendship.

For the world-renowned Thai artist and film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the topics of dreams and death are essential to his filmography. His style raises big questions about time and our relationship with the spiritual world. Winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2012 for UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, Weerasethakul returned to the main competition years later with MEMORIA, his first film shot outside of Thailand, which received the Jury Prize (ex-aequo).

The Scottish artist, actress, and producer Tilda Swinton began her career performing and collaborating with experimental filmmaker Derek Jarman. She has worked with directors such as Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, Luca Guadagnino, the Coen brothers, and Joanna Hogg. Her performances have been characterized by the subtlety of her gestures and her magnetic presence. In 2007, she won the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for the movie MICHAEL CLAYTON. She has combined her acting in major Hollywood productions with a wide range of characters created by contemporary filmmakers such as Bong Joon-ho, Pedro Almodóvar, Lynne Ramsay, and more recently, Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

This special release is in English, but if you are a Spanish-speaker, we encourage you to subscribe to MUBI Podcast: Encuentros on your favorite podcast app. The show is produced in partnership with La Corriente del Golfo. Listen here: lacorrientedelgolfo.net/podcast/encuentros

MEMORIA releases exclusively on MUBI this Friday, August 5 in Latin America, India, Turkey, Italy, Germany, and many other countries. Watch the film here: mubi.com/films/memoria-2021

MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor. A place to discover and watch beautiful, interesting, incredible films. A new hand-picked film arrives on MUBI, every single day. Cinema from across the world. From iconic directors, to emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.