Autohystoria

Idiosyncratic and rather uneasy film by a great talent. A film like a dream. A work of art that is occasionally difficult to get hold of, with a tangible heart.

The film maker himself describes Autohystoria as a collection of digitalised memories of both reality and dreams. Now, dreams are sometimes complex because they are so unwilling to surrender their meaning. They can certainly be difficult for a film viewer, because events in a film – other than in life and certainly other than ones in real dreams – are supposed to have logical explanations. And you don’t get them here. The dream remains a dream and it remains just as impenetrable as a real dream.

But there is a story. Two, even. In a contemporary city, the story is told of two brothers: an older brother who has lived in the city for a while and a younger brother who has just arrived in town. They haven’t seen each other for a time. Parallel to this, the film looks back at a true event in Filipino history. In 1897 two brothers, Andres Bonifacio and the younger Procopio, were executed in the mountains for treason and incitement. The elder brother founded Katipunan (a revolutionary movement in the spirit of the legendary Filipino national hero Jose Rizal) and was accused of betraying the revolution by a rival faction led by Emilio Aguinaldo, who later became the first president of the Philippines. There are several different stories about this dramatic execution of the Bonifacios. —Gertjan Zuillhof, International Film Festival Rotterdam