This languorously paced and nearly plotless 2002 story, about a Burmese man living in Thailand suffering from a painful skin ailment and his young Thai lover, is a moving evocation of longing unfulfilled. After an inconclusive visit to a clinic, the lovers take a pleasure trip to the jungle, later to be joined by an older female acquaintance. The idyll practically unfolds in real time, and the way the characters periodically disconnect from each other—even while making love—creates an unusual atmosphere of rapture and alienation that’s given a political edge by the man’s illegal status. Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who studied filmmaking in Chicago in the mid-90s, cites Kiarostami as an influence. In Thai with subtitles. 127 min.
