25 May 2008

Syndromes and a Century (Sang sattawat), the fifth feature from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady / Sud pralad) is a spellbinding Buddhist meditation on the mysteries of love and attraction, the workings of memory, and the ways in which happiness is triggered. Mesmerisingly beautiful to look at, it is also laced with wonderful absurd humour.

Commissioned by Vienna's New Crowned Hope festival in 2006 and released theatrically by the BFI in September last year, the film established Weerasethakul as one of the most unique and individual talents in world cinema today.

Dubbed 'a hospital comedy of a somewhat metaphysical bent', Syndromes and a Century is inspired by the Weerasethakul's memories of his parents, both doctors, and of growing up in a hospital environment. The two central characters interact with a bizarre array of professional colleagues and patients with their various strange maladies, including an elderly haematologist who hides her whisky supplies in a prosthetic limb, a Buddhist monk suffering from bad dreams about chickens, and a young monk who once dreamed of being a DJ and now forms an intense bond with a singing dentist whom he believes to be the reincarnation of his dead brother.

It is a film of two halves – the first set in a sunlit rural hospital amid lush, tropical vegetation, the second in a hi-tech urban clinic under fluorescent lighting. Certain scenes from the first half are replayed in the second – almost but not quite identically.

Syndromes and a Century will be released on UK DVD on 23rd June 2008 by the BFI at the RRP of £19.99. Featuring an anamorphic 1.66:1 transfer and a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack (320 kbps), the disc will also have the following extras:

• Interview with director (15 mins);
• Worldly Desires: an experimental love story (Weerasethakul, 2005, 40 mins);
• Original trailer;
• 28-page illustrated booklet with essays, director interview and more.