Ang Babaeng Humayo

THE WOMAN WHO LEFT is an immensely immersive and engaging tale about a wronged individual’s grueling struggle between reconciliation and revenge. Featuring Diaz’s immaculate imagery – in high-contrast black and white, as usual – and a majestic performance from Charo Santos, THE WOMAN’s main theme is simply how revenge moves in mysteriously cruel ways: with social outcasts being perennially vulnerable to the machinations of people in the social ranks above them. Nominally, this is a reworking of Tolstoy’s “God Sees the Truth, But Waits”, a short story about a Russian merchant who is charged with murder and spends 26 years in a Siberian jail before meeting and finally forgiving the real culprit. THE WOMAN, however, kicks off where Tolstoy’s tale comes to a close. Diaz’s protagonist is former schoolteacher Horacia, who begins the film having already spent three decades in a rural correctional facility for a murder she didn’t commit. Having resigned herself to fate, she is suddenly informed she will be freed. (Clarence Tsui)