The Jungle as Borderzone: The Aesthetics of Nature in the Work of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Abstract

In Thai cinema, nature is often depicted as an opposition to the urban sphere, forming a contrast in
ethical terms. This dualism is a recurring and central theme in Thai representations and an important
carrier of Thainess (khwam pen Thai). The fi lmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul off ers a new
take on this theme. Signifi cant parts of his work are set in the jungle, a realm radically diff erent from
the agricultural sphere that the mainstay of Thai representations tends to focus on. In Apichatpong’s
work, the wilderness becomes a liminal space, on multiple levels. This paper focuses on how this
liminality translates into Apichatpong’s aesthetics of the jungle and on how this aesthetics and the
fi lms’ narrations negotiate Thai nationhood via the perception of the spectators.