Synopsis : When asked what drives a man to search for the truth, Lieutenant Hermes Papauran says dejectedly that maybe he just wants to keep inflicting pain on himself. Faced with the oppressive state machinery, he continues his struggle to find resolution to a fifteen-year-old case around a volcanic ash laden landscape and an impenetrable lake. It has become a cross he can barely carry but keeps lugging anyway.
Festival History : Locarno International Film Festival, 2023 Busan International Film Festival, 2023
Director :
Lav Diaz
Producer :
Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew
Screenplay :
Lav Diaz
DOP :
Lav Diaz, Larry Manda
Editor :
Lav Diaz
Cast :
John Lloyd Cruz, Hazel Orencio, Shaina Magdayao, Bart Guingona, Agot Isidro
Lavrente Indico Diaz aka Lav Diaz is a filmmaker from the Philippines born in 1958. He is especially notable for the length of his work, his films not being governed by time but by space and nature. His work mostly deals with the social and political struggles of his motherland. Since 1998 he has directed eighteen films, and won numerous international awards including the Locarno Golden Leopard (From What Is Before, 2014), the Berlinale Alfred Bauer Silver Bear (A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery, 2016) and the Venice Golden Lion (The Woman Who Left, 2016).