Kapag wala nang mga alon

Admirers of Filipino director Lav Diaz and his singular cinema of duration have sometimes noted the paradox that his longer films can often feel short and vice versa. Lasting just over three hours, his new film sees Diaz finding the perfect balance between expansiveness and concision, however. The spare, concentrated narrative is simply structured, following two characters in parallel. One is Manila police lieutenant Hermes Papauran (John Lloyd Cruz), a revered cop but a violent man with a checkered past. The other is Primo (Ronnie Lazaro), who has just served a ten-year jail sentence. He has a score to settle with Hermes – but also a religious obsession that prompts him to give strangers surprise baptism to often disastrous effect. Diaz’s latest features a characteristic blend of black humor, tragedy (in this case of an altogether Jacobean variety), ethical and metaphysical philosophy and political critique – here, unfolding before the background of state violence directly related to the Duterte regime. Meanwhile, as ever, the forests and seascapes of the Philippine islands offer their implicit commentary on the action – a backdrop of mute, implacable indifference to the epic of human folly and corruption. (Jonathan Romney)

In the presence of Lav Diaz.

Lav Diaz: Filmografie NAKED UNDER THE MOON, (1999), EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY (2004), HEREMIAS (2006), DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCANTOS (2007), MELANCHOLIA (2008), PURGATORIO (2009), CENTURY OF BIRTHING (2011), FLORENTINA HUBALDO (2012), NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY (2013), FROM WHAT IS BEFORE (2014), LULLABY TO THE SORROWFUL MYSTERY (2016), THE WOMAN WHO LEFT (2016), SEASON OF THE DEVIL (2018), THE BOY WHO CHOSE THE EARTH (2018, Viennale-Trailer), THE HALT (2019), 30 (+) FILMS POUR LA 30ÈME (2019, Episode), LAHI, HAYOP (2020), LIMINAL (2020, Episode), HISTORYA NI HA (2021)