Essential Truths of the Lake

Ein weiterer dunkler, funkelnder Mosaikstein in Lav Diaz’ großer Anklage des Schreckensregimes des philippinischen Präsidenten Duterte ist zugleich Fortsetzung seines letzten Films WHEN THE WAVES ARE GONE. Neuerlich mit dem melancholischen Noir-(Anti-)Helden Detective Hermes Papauran, der diesmal den obskuren „Philippine Eagle Case“ wieder aufrollt, bei dem die Naturschützerin Esmeralda zum hilflosen Opfer und gleichzeitig zur Symbolfigur für den Kampf gegen die rigide Politik der Unterdrückung kritischer Stimmen wurde. Metaphysisch gerät Hermes immer mehr in den Bann des Falls und wird selbst zum bedrohten Vogel, für dessen Rettung Esmeralda kämpfte. (Bernd Brehmer)

In Anwesenheit von Lav Diaz.

ESSENTIAL TRUTHS OF THE LAKE chronicles another chapter in the story of Lieutenant Hermes Papauran—and, by extension, adds another mosaic stone to the portrait of the Philippines that Lav Diaz has been assembling film by film. Papauran was introduced in KAPAG WALA NANG MGA ALON (2022) as a once-brilliant police investigator driven to madness and violence by the extremes of President Duterte’s war on drugs. ESSENTIAL TRUTHS OF THE LAKE begins before the events of the previous film: it’s 2019 and Duterte has withdrawn the country from the International Criminal Court, giving himself even freer rein to act with impunity. Driven to despair by his effective complicity as a police officer, Papauran attempts to redeem himself by reopening a 15-year-old case he was never able to solve.
Borrowing the noir trope of a detective tormented by a cold case, Diaz conjures up the past in flashbacks that blur the line between memory and nightmare. Papauran is jolted back to reality in the film’s final part, which was shot in the wake of the massive eruption of Taal Volcano in 2020. Doubling as a documentary record of the resultant destruction, Diaz’s typically imposing images are haunted by the question of whether a phoenix can ever rise from these ashes. (Giovanni Marchini Camia)

In the presence of Lav Diaz.

Lav Diaz: NAKED UNDER THE MOON (1999), EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY (2004), 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), THE BOY WHO CHOSE THE EARTH (2018, Viennale-Trailer), THE HALT (2019), GENUS PAN (2020), HISTORY OF HA (2021), WHEN THE WAVES ARE GONE (2022)