Lav’s Golden Leopard winner in Locarno is an epic remembrance of a period of transition that marked the traumatic time of dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ rule. The film’s structure unfurls with slow power, growing increasingly complex, political, and emotional over its five-and-a-half hour story.
An untold number of persons have disappeared in the Philippines over the years, before, during and after the Marcos dictatorship. Melancholia is devoted to the grief and search for meaning over such disappearances, told across a vivid array of Philippine society.
From Filipino auteur Lav Diaz comes his greatest epic. Nine years in the making, ten hours of running time (!), first shot on film, then video: this intimate yet expansive family saga will draw you in hypnotically. Like the later Boyhood, marvel as you watch the young actors grow up before you.
The Filipino master of slow cinema intertwines a story of impoverished treasure hunters with the tale of a drifting woman coming to terms with a damaged mind and body. Extraordinary handheld camerawork captures the minutest of details, bringing the struggles of life into stark reality.
Filipino director Lav Diaz immerses us in the life and experience of Heremias, so beset by the corruption and troubles endemic to Philippine society. A saga of a modern Jeremiah, A modern parable told with angry compassion.
