20 Best Foreign Movies Of 2016

It’s virtually impossible to sum up Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s stunningly surreal Cemetery of Splendour in just a few sentences, but here goes: On its most simple level it’s the tale of a group of soldiers struck down with a mysterious sleeping sickness hospitalised at a clinic in a small Mekong River town on northern Thailand, and the housewife who volunteers to care for them, before forming an inexplicable bond with one of the afflicted soldiers.

Of course, there’s much more going on than just that. A subtly political filmmaker whose works have been described as a Buddhist take on David Lynch, Weerasethakul uses his weirdly enchanting movie to meditate on Thailand’s oppressive regimes of both past and present. It might be a tad too philosophical and nonsensical for some, but Diego Garcia’s beautifully dreamy cinematography is reason alone to give it a go.