{ "id": "epv5j66zjf", "slug": "memoria", "title": "Memoria", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2020-2022-films", "label": "2020–2022 films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2020-2022-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2020-2022-films.yr-2020-2021", "label": "Released 2020 to 2021", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2020-2022-films.yr-2020-2021" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2021 and later: Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2021", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2021.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2021.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2021.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2021.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Memoria (2021) is Apichatpong Weerasethakul's first feature made outside Thailand, a Spanish- and English-language drama starring Tilda Swinton as Jessica Holland, a Scot in Colombia haunted by a mysterious bang; it shared Cannes 2021's Jury Prize and released theatrically only.", "snippet": "Memoria (2021) is Apichatpong Weerasethakul's first feature made outside Thailand, a Spanish- and English-language drama starring Tilda Swinton as Jessica Holland, a Scot in Colombia haunted by a mysterious bang; it shared Cannes 2021's Jury Prize and released theatrically only.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2020-2022-films.yr-2020-2021", "markdown": "# Memoria\n\n**Memoria** is a 2021 drama film directed by the Thai filmmaker [Apichatpong Weerasethakul](https://www.edgepedia.org/apichatpong-weerasethakul), starring [Tilda Swinton](https://www.edgepedia.org/tilda-swinton) as Jessica Holland, a Scottish woman in Colombia who is awakened by a loud \"bang\" she alone can hear and follows the sound into the country's landscapes and buried histories.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/memoria/) It is the director's first feature film made outside Thailand, with dialogue spoken mostly in Spanish and English.[2](https://memoriathefilm.com/apichatpong-weerasethakul/) The film competed at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and shared the Jury Prize with Nadav Lapid's *Ahed's Knee*.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/memoria/) • [3](https://amkresourceinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Cannes-Film-Festival-2021.pdf)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and screenwriter | Apichatpong Weerasethakul, winner of the 2010 Palme d'Or for *Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives*[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/memoria/) • [4](https://time.com/6163774/memoria-review/) |\n| Lead cast | Tilda Swinton (Jessica Holland), Elkin Díaz (older Hernán Bedoya), Jeanne Balibar (Agnès Cerkinsky), Juan Pablo Urrego (young Hernán Bedoya)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/memoria/) |\n| Premiere and award | In Competition at Cannes 2021; Jury Prize (ex-aequo with *Ahed's Knee*)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/memoria/) • [3](https://amkresourceinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Cannes-Film-Festival-2021.pdf) |\n| Technical profile | 136 minutes; 1.85:1; 4K and 35mm; sound in 7.1 and Dolby Atmos; Spanish and English[5](https://memoriathefilm.com/) |\n| Production countries | Colombia, Thailand, UK, Mexico, France, Germany, Qatar, among others; produced by Burning S.A.S, Kick The Machine, and Illuminations Films[5](https://memoriathefilm.com/) |\n| Filming | Chosen Colombia as its location in 2019, shot in Bogotá and Pijao with an international crew alongside Colombian professionals[6](https://comisionfilmicacolombia.com/asi-fue-la-experiencia-de-rodar-memoria-en-colombia/) |\n| Critical reception | 90% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 139 reviews; Metacritic score of 92[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memoria_2021) • [8](https://cinegraph.org/movies/memoria-2021) |\n| Release model | Distributed by Neon for theatrical exhibition only, on a traveling tour, with no streaming or home-video release intended[9](https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/21/apichatpong-weerasethakul-memoria-review) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and structure\n\nEver since being startled by a loud \"bang\" at daybreak, Jessica (Tilda Swinton) is unable to sleep. While staying in Bogotá on a trip to see her sister, she strikes up a friendship with Agnes (Jeanne Balibar), an archaeologist examining human remains found in a tunnel that is being built. Jessica travels to the excavation site, and in a small town nearby she encounters a fish scaler, Hernan (Elkin Díaz); they share memories by the river, and as the day closes Jessica is awakened to a sense of clarity.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memoria_2021)\n\nThe film returns to the two-part structure of Apichatpong's first four features. The first part is urban and broadly rational and scientific, set among a university campus, research labs, a lecture theater, and a library, where Jessica struggles to define and \"capture\" the noise in her head. A brief detour to La Linea, the roughly 8-kilometer tunnel through the Andes under construction to link Colombia's east and west coasts, marks the film's midpoint. In the second part, set in the countryside, Jessica is carried by her dreams along a path leading deep into territory beyond reason, and there she comes to sense and hear a man's memories, whether he is an extraterrestrial or not, and whether or not he is connected to what causes the auditory hallucinations.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/apichatpong-memoria-his-odyssey-into-soundscapes-colombia)\n\nDuring her journey Jessica comes upon remnants of the nation's political past, most vividly a passerby who drops to the ground at the sound of a tire bursting, mistaking it for a terrorist bomb, as well as traces of ancient enigmas: the skull of a young woman, 6,000 years old, unearthed at La Linea, bearing signs that trepanation had been performed on her.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/apichatpong-memoria-his-odyssey-into-soundscapes-colombia) In the film's key scene, Jessica meets the much older Hernán, who tells her, \"I remember everything. So I try to limit what I see. That's why I never watch movies or TV.\"[4](https://time.com/6163774/memoria-review/)\n\n## Sound as the film's method\n\nSound is central to *Memoria* beyond Jessica's condition. Rendering audible the sounds in Jessica's head, the director has said, puts the audience in touch with her senses: \"We become her because we feel her.\"[11](https://www.frieze.com/article/apichatpong-weerasethakul-memoria-2022-interview) The sound designer Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, who has worked on all of Apichatpong's films since *Tropical Malady* (2004), described the approach as using ambience to tell the story, calling it more important than music.[12](https://mubi.com/it/notebook/posts/how-it-sounds-to-remember-the-sonic-work-of-akritchalerm-kalayanamitr) • [13](https://filmmakermagazine.com/112910-interview-akritchalerm-kalayanamitr-richard-hocks-javier-umpierrez-sound-designer-memoria/) The film was mixed for two weeks, with 7.1, 5.1, and Atmos mixes delivered, and it is designed to match the sound capabilities of each theater in which it screens, because the range between its loudness and quietness is vast.[13](https://filmmakermagazine.com/112910-interview-akritchalerm-kalayanamitr-richard-hocks-javier-umpierrez-sound-designer-memoria/) • [12](https://mubi.com/it/notebook/posts/how-it-sounds-to-remember-the-sonic-work-of-akritchalerm-kalayanamitr) In the scene where the young sound engineer reconstructs the noise from Jessica's descriptions, the on-screen scene lasts about 10 minutes; in reality Kalayanamitr, aided by sound designer Koichi Shimizu, made about 20 passes before landing on the final version.[13](https://filmmakermagazine.com/112910-interview-akritchalerm-kalayanamitr-richard-hocks-javier-umpierrez-sound-designer-memoria/)\n\nApichatpong has said the sharpened focus on sound marked a shift in his thinking about his cinema, tracing it to the 2015 *Fever Room* performance, where he and his sound designers experimented with many speakers and their placement, and to Colombia itself: since he does not speak Spanish, he treated the language as sound, as music, and thinks of *Memoria* as a performance.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/apichatpong-memoria-his-odyssey-into-soundscapes-colombia)\n\n## Origins and inspirations\n\nJessica's aural hallucination is shared by the director himself. It is a rare and little understood phenomenon variously called \"exploding head syndrome\" and \"auditory sleep starts\"; Apichatpong came to regard the \"bang\" as a strange pleasure and even regretted its loss when it stopped, whereas it turns his protagonist into an insomniac.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/apichatpong-memoria-his-odyssey-into-soundscapes-colombia) The character was first written as \"Erika\" but renamed Jessica Holland in honor of the character played by Christine Gordon in Jacques Tourneur's *I Walked with a Zombie* (1943), a film Apichatpong has called one of his \"beloved\" films.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/apichatpong-memoria-his-odyssey-into-soundscapes-colombia)\n\nThe older Hernán's claim to total recall recalls [Jorge Luis Borges](https://www.edgepedia.org/jorge-luis-borges)'s story \"Funes the Memorious,\" but the book published to accompany the film reveals that Apichatpong drew on the real-life story of the Australian woman Rebecca Sharrock, who has HSAM (\"Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory\"), also known as hyperthymesia.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/apichatpong-memoria-his-odyssey-into-soundscapes-colombia) For the film's preparation, the director listened to many stories in Colombia and incorporated his own memories of Thailand.[14](https://www.eyeshenzhen.com/content/2023-07/18/content_30343976.htm) He has described the film as presenting the entanglement of memories, personal and collective: Jessica wakes as an empty shell and absorbs memories of people and places, an \"amplifier (or as Hernan puts it, an antenna)\" walking through mountains that themselves hold layers of memory.[2](https://memoriathefilm.com/apichatpong-weerasethakul/)\n\n## Colombia as setting and production partner\n\nApichatpong chose Colombia after growing up in the 1970s reading Thai novels about hunters seeking the treasures of lost civilizations, stories whose Thai authors had adopted the romanticized Amazonian settings of colonial-era Western tales; he remained drawn to such a world.[2](https://memoriathefilm.com/apichatpong-weerasethakul/) He selected two cities, Bogotá and Pijao, as the film's setting.[2](https://memoriathefilm.com/apichatpong-weerasethakul/) In 2019 the production chose Colombia as its shooting location, and the film was made by an international team working with Colombian audiovisual professionals: Diana Bustamante producing through her company Burning, Angélica Perea on production design, César López composing the original music, and Raúl Locatelli of Mexico joining the sound department, among others.[6](https://comisionfilmicacolombia.com/asi-fue-la-experiencia-de-rodar-memoria-en-colombia/) The cast was led by the British Tilda Swinton alongside the Colombian actors Elkin Díaz and Juan Pablo Urrego and the French Jeanne Balibar.[6](https://comisionfilmicacolombia.com/asi-fue-la-experiencia-de-rodar-memoria-en-colombia/) The Mexican company Piano and Estudios Churubusco co-produced the film, which was funded in part through Mexico's EFICINE article 189 tax incentive.[15](https://revistalumbreras.com/memoria-la-cinta-que-acerco-a-weerasethakul-a-mexico/) • [16](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=13952)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nAfter its Cannes premiere, where it won the Jury Prize ex-aequo with *Ahed's Knee*,[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/memoria/) • [3](https://amkresourceinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Cannes-Film-Festival-2021.pdf) the film screened at the Toronto, Rotterdam, London, New York, and Morelia film festivals.[17](https://www.berlinale-talents.de/bt/project/profile/316029) It won the Gold Hugo for Best Film at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2021.[16](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=13952)\n\n**Theatrical-only release.** Apichatpong and distributor Neon announced that *Memoria* would never be available on streaming or home video and would instead play theatrically in perpetuity, traveling from city to city on a never-ending tour; the original announcement that it would play only one theater at a time was later relaxed.[9](https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/21/apichatpong-weerasethakul-memoria-review) The director was emphatic about the need to see the film communally in a theater, with its undistracting darkness and enveloping sound.[18](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/62740b8b7f648.pdf) Neon did eventually provide a screener DVD in its awards consideration package, prefaced by a video message from the director and Swinton reminding viewers the film was never intended for that format.[9](https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/21/apichatpong-weerasethakul-memoria-review)\n\nCritics responded strongly: the film holds 90% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 139 reviews[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memoria_2021) and a Metacritic score of 92,[8](https://cinegraph.org/movies/memoria-2021) while audience ratings ran far lower, with an IMDb score of 6.4, making it a marked case of critic-audience divergence.[8](https://cinegraph.org/movies/memoria-2021) Reviewers described it as the director's most accessible film yet, though still bewildering, and singled out its sound design; the critics' consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads that *Memoria* finds Apichatpong \"branching out into English-language filmmaking without forsaking any of his own lyrical cinematic vocabulary.\"[9](https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/21/apichatpong-weerasethakul-memoria-review) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memoria_2021)\n\n## References\n\n1. [MEMORIA, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/memoria/)\n2. [Interview with the director, memoriathefilm.com](https://memoriathefilm.com/apichatpong-weerasethakul/)\n3. [Cannes Film Festival 2021 winners list, AMK Resource World](https://amkresourceinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Cannes-Film-Festival-2021.pdf)\n4. [In *Memoria*, Tilda Swinton Plays a Spiritual Adventuress Seeking the Source of a Mysterious Sound, TIME](https://time.com/6163774/memoria-review/)\n5. [MEMORIA (2021) technical details, memoriathefilm.com](https://memoriathefilm.com/)\n6. [Así fue la experiencia de rodar Memoria en Colombia, Comisión Fílmica Colombia](https://comisionfilmicacolombia.com/asi-fue-la-experiencia-de-rodar-memoria-en-colombia/)\n7. [Memoria (2021), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memoria_2021)\n8. [Memoria, Cinegraph](https://cinegraph.org/movies/memoria-2021)\n9. ['Memoria' is a film obsessed with what gets lost in translation, WBUR](https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/04/21/apichatpong-weerasethakul-memoria-review)\n10. [Apichatpong on Memoria, Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/apichatpong-memoria-his-odyssey-into-soundscapes-colombia)\n11. [Apichatpong Weerasethakul on Why Cinema Should Be Communal, Frieze](https://www.frieze.com/article/apichatpong-weerasethakul-memoria-2022-interview)\n12. [How It Sounds to Remember: The Sonic Work of Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, MUBI Notebook](https://mubi.com/it/notebook/posts/how-it-sounds-to-remember-the-sonic-work-of-akritchalerm-kalayanamitr)\n13. [In the Quiet Moments: The Memoria Sound Team, Filmmaker Magazine](https://filmmakermagazine.com/112910-interview-akritchalerm-kalayanamitr-richard-hocks-javier-umpierrez-sound-designer-memoria/)\n14. [Thai director shares insights on hit film 'Memoria', EYESHENZHEN](https://www.eyeshenzhen.com/content/2023-07/18/content_30343976.htm)\n15. ['Memoria', la cinta que acercó a Weerasethakul a México](https://revistalumbreras.com/memoria-la-cinta-que-acerco-a-weerasethakul-a-mexico/)\n16. [Memoria, Sistema de Información Cultural, Secretaría de Cultura (México)](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=13952)\n17. [Memoria, Berlinale Talents project profile](https://www.berlinale-talents.de/bt/project/profile/316029)\n18. [Harvard Film Archive program notes](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/62740b8b7f648.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2020–2022 films › Released 2020 to 2021*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/memoria", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/memoria.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Memoria\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/memoria. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Memoria](https://www.edgepedia.org/memoria)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/memoria](https://www.edgepedia.org/memoria). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Memoria\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/memoria. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Memoria is Apichatpong Weerasethakul's first feature made outside Thailand, a Spanish- and English-language drama starring Tilda Swinton as Jessica Holland, a Scot in Colombia haunted by a mysterious bang; it shared Cannes 2021's Jury Prize and released theatrically only." }