Storm Children - Book One

Super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit the Philippines with devastating effect and yet Lav Diaz documents the results with a calmness to equal that. In a quite and observant style - not very different from his feature films - he shows how, in the midst of all the destruction, the inhabitants of a coastal town pick up their lives in the shadow of ships blown ashore.
Children keep attracting his attention. They carry on playing, and it’s as if Diaz is hesitant about showing the tragedy that lurks in the background. Children who dig on under the collapsed corrugated roof of a hut, children who have lost their family. They know that even the oldest people in the area couldn’t remember such a severe storm.
In his other films, often very long (Storm Children is short by his standards, less than 2 1/2 hours) Diaz also provides evidence of his great commitment to his country. See also From What Is Before.