Magalhães

MAGALHÃES continues Lav Diaz’s ongoing interrogation of his country’s colonial wounds by addressing their historical origins. Set in the 16th century, the film follows Portuguese conquistador Fernão de Magalhães as he takes part in the colonisation of Malacca and leads a long, almost suicidal expedition that culminates in the invasion of Cebu in the present-day Philippines. Shot by Artur Tort of PACIFICTION (2023) fame, the grave, rigorous compositions that make up each scene bear the traces of such period cinema icons as Roberto Rossellini or Manoel de Oliveira in their rejection of spectacle, yet for Diaz history is also inextricably linked to violence. What underlies the long stretches of wait, idleness and crazed despair in MAGALHÃES is a future genocide still in a state of dreadful dormancy, which is only heightened by the viewer’s presumed awareness of the outcome. The film’s unflinching view of colonisation is at once intricately layered and irreducibly bare. Devoid of any conceptual rhetoric that would deal with the topic in a more devious manner, Diaz continues to trust in a frontal, almost primary form of cinema as the most potent, vindictive means to trace and confront fascism and its echoes. (Salvador Amores)

In the presence of Roger Koza.

Lav Diaz (selection): NAKED UNDER THE MOON (1999), EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY (2004), DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCANTOS (2007), MELANCHOLIA (2008), PURGATORIO (2009), NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY (2013), FROM WHAT IS BEFORE (2014), LULLABY TO THE SORROWFUL MYSTERY (2016), THE BOY WHO CHOSE THE EARTH (2018, Viennale- Trailer), THE HALT (2019), GENUS PAN (2020), HISTORY OF HA (2021), ESSENTIAL TRUTHS OF THE LAKE (2023), PHANTOSMIA (2024)