The boundaries of oblivion: Ghosts and memory in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s short films

Abstract

This article analyses chosen Apichatpong’s short films, organized in two thematic areas, with reference to the director’s primary interest in communicating about post-traumatic memory. The first part is dedicated to ghostly presences, their meanings and depictions. Apichatpong’s ghosts derive from the light penetrating the surface to human-shape projections or figments of imagination. This part of the analysis will refer to Derrida’s hauntology concept and its dissemination in such films as A Letter to Uncle Boonmee (2009) or Apichatpong’s early project Haunted Houses (2001). In the following part of the article, I will focus on the destruction of memory, symbolized by the images of fire, burning objects or split narrative structures. Here I will analyse films such as Blue (2018) and Ashes (2012), pointing out similar semiotic references in Apichatpong’s feature films. The analysis presented is accompanied by the observation of connections between Apichatpong’s feature films and short films, with a particular emphasis on his new short projects. My reflection on the topic was built upon the audio-visual resources, including interviews and records from exhibitions, as well as subject literature in English, Polish and Japanese.