Synopsis

Pain in melodic form: Lav Diaz condenses the traumas of a nation into an anti-musical. At the end of the 1970s, dictator Marcos rules the Philippines, while in the provinces brutal militias enforce martial law. Lorena runs a clinic for the poor. She gets in the sights of the soldateska and disappears. Her husband, the poet Hugo, searches for her and finds only a broken community apathetically vegetating, in constant fear of soldiers, communist rebels and mythological creatures. Against the backdrop of such terrible events – all real incidents – the spoken word fails and Diaz has his characters sing. Thus he creates a bloodcurdling lamento on the eternal destiny of his home country.

Bio

LAV DIAZ (*1958 on Mindanao, Philippines) is one of the most influential film-makers of today. Well-known for their long running times and unique style, his works have won prizes at festivals in Venice, Locarno and Berlin. FILMFEST HAMBURG has shown numerous of his films and in 2019 he was a guest in the section »Gegenwartskino im Fokus«.

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