Empire

Thailand/Austria, 2010, 2 minutes
35 mm/1.78:1/colour, no dialogue

• Realisation Apichatpong Weerasethakul
  Made for Viennale Film Festival, Austria, 21 October - 3 November 2010

EMPIRE is a film about searching and finding. As the camera feels its way along the walls of a cave or grotto, we see a diver wearing a gleaming white helmet and a hand diving into the sand to pick up some shells, playfully sliding them through his fingers. The images are accompanied by a polyphonic roaring, hammering and rattling. Has the diver been looking for something and has someone else found it?