Thai filmmaker Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul receives France’s highest honour, the Legion of Honour, cementing his legacy in global cinema.

Finally, we have a reason to proclaim “vive le cinéma” once again. 

Beloved Thai auteur Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul has been appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur). 

Bestowed yesterday by the Ambassador of France to Thailand, Jean-Claude Poimboeuf, this highest of French distinctions reaffirms Joe’s status as one of the most important voices in contemporary global cinema.

A pioneer of modern “slow cinema,” Joe has spent decades mesmerising audiences by interlacing political memory, queerness and Buddhist cosmology into beautiful sensory experiences. For global cinephiles, his genius became undeniable when Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives clinched the historic Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2010. 

Eleven years later, he proved his enduring brilliance on the world stage yet again with Memoria (2021) – a haunting, sound-driven, quasi-sci-fi masterpiece starring Tilda Swinton that rightfully took home the Cannes Jury Prize.

Anticipation is building for Joe’s next masterwork, Jenjira’s Magnificent Dream, a production currently gestating into reality.

The film reunites the director with his recurring muse, Jenjira Pongpas, who stars as a sexagenarian Thai widow sharing her first name, journeying to the ancient fortress of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka to carry out her husband’s final rites. 

However, the ritual dissolves into something cosmic. The location itself serves as an homage to sci-fi visionary Arthur C. Clarke’s 52-year residency in the country. Here, time and space bleed together, creating an otherworldly bridge that collapses the boundaries between past and future, life and afterlife.

If there’s one thing Thai cinephiles should be proud of, it’s not their knowledge of which movie on their list is more obscure than the other, but the recognition that Thailand has long stood at the vanguard of boundary-pushing cinema.