Mysterious Object at Noon
January 21, 2026
Presented by Mount Analogue ◦ Art + Cinema
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Tropical Malady, Memoria) brought an appetite for experimentation to Thai cinema with his debut feature, an uncategorizable work that refracts documentary impressions of his homeland through the surrealist concept of the exquisite corpse game.
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
Shot in 16-millimeter black and white with Dolby sound, then blown up to 35-millimeter, this singular experimental feature from Thailand is a freewheeling collaboration between filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and villagers he encountered while driving south from Bangkok. After hearing a story en route, Weerasethakul asked others to continue and/or modify it; back in Bangkok, he shot portions of the narrative with nonprofessional actors. The entire film is a heady mix of fiction and nonfiction, with fantasy and actuality rubbing shoulders at every stage, and what emerges from the collective unconscious of the participants is surprising and fascinating. Weerasethakul packages his findings in diverse and inventive ways: as an improvised outdoor musical performance, as a game played by school children, as a collaborative description in sign by two teenage deaf-mutes. I can’t think of another film remotely like it. - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
- Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- Country: Thailand
- Year: 2000
- Running Time: 83 min.
- Language: Thai, with English subtitles
- Has Subtitles: Yes