The man with the exploding head: the director inspired by his medical condition

The man with the exploding head: the director inspired by his medical condition:

When acclaimed Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul discovered he had ‘exploding head syndrome’, he let the condition feed into the film about trauma and memory he was making with Tilda Swinton

APichatpong Weerasethakul’s house in northern Thailand is a luscious jungle paradise full of polished concrete and teak, palm trees and bamboo. Even the air smells zen. The house’s three gatekeepers, Dracula, King Kong and Vampire, do little to disturb the peace. They are pugs – named because Weerasethakul loves horror movies – who have a proclivity for tenderly licking human toes, further adding to the sense of being biblically cleansed on arrival.

Weerasethakul, 49, is filled with the same soft stillness that pervades his films. In 2010, the director won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for his eerie mouthful of a film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. His 2015 follow-up Cemetery of Splendour won huge critical acclaim. Equally embraced by the film and art worlds, he has just been announced as a nominee for this year’s Artes Mundi prize, the UK’s biggest award for international contemporary art.

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