Plot: Retired policeman holds a woman and daughter in a claustrophobic grip with his dictatorial behaviour. His son-in-law resists and the result is a confrontation. A gruesome monster in his familiarity: it could be your next-door neighbour.Read More »
Quote:
Debuting to critical acclaim in 1998, Diaz’s Serafin Geronimo, Kriminal ng Baryo Concepcion, announced the arrival of a major talent, and a possible new direction for Philippines cinema. Where Brocka had examined society’s effect on the individual, Diaz’s Kriminal looked at the effect of the individual’s actions on his conscience. His Russian influences written on his sleeve— the film begins with a quote from Crime and Punishment translated into Tagalog— Diaz’s hero was akin to that of Dostoevsky but atypical of Philippine cinema; a quiet man with a guilty past seeking redemption in the present. With Kriminal, Diaz laid down his archetype character and began to plot the path of his aesthetic.Read More »
In facing apartment units, two men share parallel stories. One, distraught over the death of John Lennon, contemplates on killing himself. The other goes into a fit deciding how to part with his 3-years-old toothbrush.Read More »
Quote:
A multi-awarded film by Filipino National Artist Gerardo de Leon, based on a novel written by martyr-hero Jose P. Rizal, and which trigerred the Philippine Revolution of 1896. Produced in 1961 for the national celebrations commemorating the birth centenary of Rizal, the film considered lost for almost two decades until its recent restoration by German Archivist.Read More »
Quote
One of the most adventurous filmmakers to emerge from the Philippines in decades, Lav Diaz is, in many ways, the spiritual father of what some have called the Filipino New Wave, a group of filmmakers who have adopted digital technology to create an intimate and raw style. At the same time, he stands separate from them, often working on an epic scale and addressing historical shifts in Philippine society. (See his epochal Ebulysion: Evolution of a Filipino Family.)Read More »
Quote:
‘Enemy’ is elegaic science-fiction: a fable about the young men trained as Guardians of the Stars and their failure to ward off an unknon ‘enemy’ who manifests himself as white light.Read More »
An investigation into the ecological disaster caused by a US military base on the Philippines – and its victims, their world. A humble act of solidarity, a defiant work of remembrance, a rallying cry to rise and resist, a cinematic prose poem.Read More »
Synopsis
Philippines, late 1970s. A military-controlled militia is oppressing a remote village, spreading terror both physical and psychological. The fearless young doctor Lorena who opened a clinic for the poor disappears without a trace. Her husband, activist poet Hugo Haniway, attempts to find her.Read More »
