Skip to site content
Wed, Jul 27 at 8:00pm

TROPICAL MALADY

  • Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
  • Thailand/France/Germany/Italy
  • 2004
  • 118 min.
  • NR
  • 35mm

In Thai with English subtitles

  • Assistive Listening
  • Subtitled
  • Hearing Loop
TROPICAL MALADY

Part of Queer Qlassics.

Wed, Jul 27 at 8:00pm: Pre-recorded introduction from author, speaker, poet and comedian Alok Vaid-Menon and post-screening discussion with film critic Jason Shawhan | BUY TICKETS

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and Cahiers du Cinema’s Best Film of that same year, this sensual meditation from Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a bifurcate narrative of the tangled relationship between the soldier Keng (Banlop Lomnoi) and rural cipher Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee) — the former tale a sweet idyllic swoon into the earthy romance of mixtapes and holding hands at the movies, the latter a harrowing jungle pursuit where bodies are as mutable as desire itself, and the line between pursuer and pursued is as indeterminate as the measured gait of the tiger ghost always just a few steps behind. Magic and mystery proliferate in the liminal spaces of Apichatpong’s films, and this expansive caress of hormonal unease sticks in the hippocampus like few other films. Screening in 35mm

“Both love story and folk tale, TROPICAL MALADY intersects eros with cultural traditions, heralding the thrill of the chase and asserting that the deepest romances are not sexual but spiritual in nature. Literally.” —Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine (2004)

“TROPICAL MALADY is a haunted dreamscape of memory and longing, a meditation on the way folk tales — or any story that touches us deeply — can become part of us.” —Stephanie Zacharek, Salon (2005)

“Pulsates with a fervent, exultant passion free of pretense….” —Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

See the Official Website