In the 16th century, young and ambitious Portuguese navigator Fernão de Magalhães rebels against the power of King Manuel I, who doesn't support his dream of discovering the world. He persuades the Spanish Crown to fund his bold expedition to the fabled lands of the East. The voyage is exhausting beyond expectations, with hunger and mutiny pushing the crew to their limits. Upon reaching the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, Magalhães' mind changes. He becomes obsessed with conquest and conversion, which sparks violent uprisings beyond his control.

Hilarion Zabala, a former master sergeant, is tormented by a strange smell. The diagnosis is phantosmia, i.e. olfactory hallucinations, where he perceives smells that do not actually exist. His doctor attributes this to past trauma and recommends that he confront and recall his dark military service period as a solution. Zabala, willing to take on any task, voluntarily visits a military base and is eventually assigned to a remote island penal colony. However, another horrific reality awaits him there.
From religious bloodshed to human rights abuses against women, the various forms of violence created by humans are still structurally and routinely pervasive. How can justice and salvation be achieved in an age of violence? Can violence used to prevent violence ever be justified? Deep anguish is reflected through the contemplative black-and-white imagery. (BOO Kyunghwan)

2023 Filipino film

The Philippines, 1974: as Marcos’ oppressive regime becomes increasingly entrenched after he imposed martial law in 1972, Servando Monzon III, heir to his powerful clan’s hacienda and family business, refuses to capitulate to the dictator’s plans to control the country. In this adaptation of Ricardo Lee’s short story and screenplay Servando Magdamag, Lav Diaz, the unrelenting and incisive prober of Philippine history’s shadowy areas, offers a film of epic proportions. The aim, as unequivocally indicated by the title, is nothing less than to scrutinise Filipino violence and explore its roots from Spanish colonisation to the present day. Feudalism and power struggles are closely examined. Borne aloft by a remarkable cast – John Lloyd Cruz in the main role is a huge television and film star in the Philippines – this “sine novela”, according to the opening credits, mixes up the codes of the telenovela with Lav Diaz’ ostensibly very different filmmaking. The story unfolds of the mutual relationships of a profusion of characters over time, shot in the sumptuous black and white that is now the stuff of most of his movies. The filmmaker himself frames these magnificent shots that stretch out, sensuous experiences of living tableaux attentive to the bodies set in a place as well as to the languages used, to the inner movements and down-time. In this film that’s both a tragic saga set in the past and the tale of an “endless nightmare”, Diaz takes on a dual allegorical dimension – the figures of the philosopher and the blind man – and an informative one, like the revolutionary education meetings that pepper the story. This “tale of violence” is also an epic with very contemporary resonances, as the recent election to the presidency of another Marcos, a devoted son of the previous president, reminds us. (Nicolas Feodoroff)
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Lieutenant Hermes Papauran, one of the best investigators in the Philippines, is at a deep moral crossroads. He is a first-hand witness of the murderous anti-drug campaign conducted by his force, his anxiety and guilt triggering a severe skin disease. As he tries to heal, a dark past haunts him.

In the year 2050, the Philippines brace for the coming of the fiercest storm ever to hit the country. And as the wind and waters start to rage, poets are being murdered.
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The Day Before The End won the Principal Prize at the 2016 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. The jury cited it as “a work of political urgency. Made by an artist known for works that unfold over many hours, this short film is both elaborate and succinct.”

A majestic film in which two stories easily fit. One about a filmmaker who is a little like Diaz himself and wrestles with the completion of his film and with greedy film festival programmers. And one about a religious leader. Also a little like Diaz himself?
The films of Lav Diaz often tell serious epic stories, but they are still not entirely free from humour and satire. For instance in this film, Diaz takes the mickey out of festival programmers and also sketches a picture of himself that is not entirely free from self-mockery.
The film has two or three stories (also a film in the film) and one of them focuses on the filmmaker Homer, who very much resembles Lav Diaz himself. The tortured filmmaker wrestles with completing his film. Despite pleas from those around him and from eager programmers, he continues to refuse to regard his film as finished. Alongside the story about a nun in the film on which Homer is working, there’s another story about the religious leader Father Turbico. Turbico leads a sect in the countryside that is primarily made up of young women. When one of the women wants to leave the sect, a dramatic situation ensues.
By telling the stories in parallel, similarities become visible between Homer’s struggle with cinema and Turbico's struggle with faith.

本片深入研究了人性——也许是我们动物性冲动的进化。雨果岛是菲律宾群岛中一个被上帝遗弃的岛屿，在这里只有很少的好事发生：日本占领者在二战中建立了一个强迫妓女的营地，现在矿工们为了微薄的收入在泥泞中拼搏。其中三个人于是开始寻找更好的生活。但在旅途中他们发现，人类的历史就是一部暴力的谱系。片名指的是动物世界中我们最亲密的表亲之一黑猩猩的动物学名称。

An embittered law student commits a brutal double murder; a family man takes the fall and is forced into a harsh prison sentence; a mother and her two children wander the countryside looking for some kind of redemption.

The Philippines, 1972. Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad and houses are burned. Ferdinand E. Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law.