Blissfully Yours

Min, an undocumented migrant from Burma living in Thailand, has a skin condition and cannot see a doctor. His girlfriend Roong and an older woman look after him. In the afternoon the three go into the forest, and the film stays there by the river for a long time. Apichatpong Weerasethakul wrote and directed. Its best-known formal decision is the credits: the title and the names appear forty-five minutes in, with the film already well under way. From that point the story moves entirely into the forest and almost no speech remains. The sense of time is deliberately brought close to real time; eating, dozing and walking are not shortened. Undocumented migration is not background but ground: no access to healthcare, no papers, and the border right there. It won the top prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2002 and brought the director into international circulation. Who it is for: viewers curious about slow cinema and Apichatpong's rhythm. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events; the film tells almost nothing and means to.