In January and February, the new Uitkijk series is dedicated to Invisible Forces. For this program, we have selected films in which characters are confronted with elusive, all-encompassing forces that shape their lives in different ways. The films move between horror, magical realism, and existential nightmares, showing how people struggle, falter, and sometimes break under the weight of the unknown.
In CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR, Jenjira, a nurse, observes a group of Thai soldiers suffering from a mysterious sleeping sickness. Lonely and compassionate, she takes care of Itt, a soldier with no family, and tries to uncover the origins of the dreamlike illness.
Set in a hospital built on a former burial ground for kings, the film allows magical apparitions and poetic hallucinations to merge seamlessly. Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul paints an enchanted vision of Thailand, where past and present, the mundane and the spiritual, pop culture and Buddhism are inextricably intertwined CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR reveals how much of Thailand’s history remains visible in the present—and how much stays unseen if we are unwilling to look.