Lav Diaz

Feature that seems bent on discouraging: black & white and endlessly long, strict as a documentary from before the TV age. Raw, emotional, heart-warming and gripping. Empathise with a poor Filipino peasant family that is condemned to the city. Absolutely the most durable viewing experience of this festival.

What makes a man castrate himself? With colleague director Lav Diaz in the role of the bleeding man.

Majestic masterpiece by the Filipino Lav Diaz who takes his time to tell a story with great emotion. In meditative black & white images, the fateful life of travelling salesman in the countryside comes to life slowly but surely. He is the victim of corruption and theft, but his spirit doesn’t seem breakable.

A military junta has taken power on the Philippines. Their takeover is fought by Moslem separatists, communists and rival military. In the middle of the chaos there is Hesus Mariano: academic, musician, poet and sniper. Politically tinted science-fiction action drama with an attitude.

A kid in the Filipino countryside. Everything is smaller and poorer than Cinema Paradiso, but the VHS cinema also appeals to the imagination. Innocence is soon lost and death is closer. Not everything is idyllic under the palm trees.

Majestic masterpiece by the Filipino Lav Diaz who takes his time to tell a story with great emotion. In meditative black & white images, the fateful life of travelling salesman in the countryside comes to life slowly but surely. He is the victim of corruption and theft, but his spirit doesn’t seem breakable.

Filmmaker friend demolishes the masterpiece Batang West Side by Lav Diaz. Diaz looked at it and approved.

Basically an artist is also a terrorist, the protagonist thinks in an unguarded moment. And if he is a terrorist after all, then he might just as well be one. Not an instant product, but an experimental feature in which diary material is brought together to form an intriguing puzzle.

The muddy scene outside a shop on a tropical rain day.

Lav Diaz is the master of the full-length film. Of the very long film, rather. A spontaneously made film against the background of the natural disaster that was caused by the hurricane Durian in 2006 in the Philippines. A film about new and old sorrow and also an ode to life goes on.

This is where the ghosts of the dictator couple Marcos and those of their victims live. The state of siege re-emerges. Maybe The Brockas' punk rock can chase out Satan, but one fears it can't. Installation by the master of the extremely long film.

Yes it's quite a sit. And it's also in black-and-white. Didn't you hear it was very slow? This film asks for a certain commitment, but offers a lot in return. This Filipino master shares his insights and feelings with you. His sorrow. A lesson in life for the price of a cinema ticket.

Maybe animal lovers should come in ten minutes too late. Yet the ritual slaughter of a young water buffalo is a powerful start to a sombre and nightmarish film about the Passion of Christ. No, it doesn't look like that are the film. This Christ has no idea either.

It's not his first or only short film, but a short film by the master of the extremely long film is exceptional. Poetic and political.

It made the censors in the Philippines stutter. The filmmaker, in his vision of the Apocalypse as experienced by three women locked in a ghostly house, was not only inspired by horror, but also by porn films. You have been warned.

For anyone for whom thirteen hours is too long, here is a real Lav Diaz lasting less than an hour. Filled with nostalgia and hopelessness and a worried woman with long legs.

A majestic film in which two stories easily fit. One about a filmmaker who is a little like Diaz himself and wrestles with the completion of his film and with greedy film festival programmers. And one about a religious leader. Also a little like Diaz himself?

As no other filmmaker, Lav Diaz is involved with the suffering of the people of the Philippines, with its history of colonialism, corruption and poverty. A philosophical drama about the psychological effects of injustice and arbitrariness. Two poor labourers leave the city looking for a treasure.

The young Filipino director was once given a dark, political scenario for his birthday by the famous Lav Diaz. Only years later did he get round to filming it. A journalist investigates a woman with the name of China Doll. Knowledge, however, turns out to be dangerous here.

Lav Diaz is a true storyteller; his stories are sometimes very long, often in black-and-white. This one lasts just four hours - and is in colour. About a murderer and the fate that befalls the man (and his family) accused of the murder. Like in a Russian novel.

Great filmmaker prepares for a historical masterpiece set in an inhospitable, black-and-white jungle. A taster.

The great chronicler of the sorrow of the Philippines at the peak of his ability. A whole village is followed in the struggle to survive during the years of dictatorship. It has the beauty of an old tropical photo album. Lav Diaz recently received the prestigious Prince Claus Award for his entire oeuvre. See also Storm Children - Book One

The landscape after the battle. Filmmaker of rivers of features surprises himself with a documentary about the consequences of super storm Yolanda (Haiyan) which raged over the Philippines like a war. He looks the way only he can look. Calmly, deep and sharp. For instance at the children who survived.

Wake (Subic) forms, together with Vapor Trail (IFFR 2010), a monumental essay that investigates the context of the poisoning around former American bases on the Philippines. In its sparkling multiformity, the film touches on a much larger story about the tragic consequences of unimpeded militarism, historic amnesia and colonial relationships.

Locked up for thirty years because of a false accusation and then to hear your relatives have disappeared. Moreover, the unexpectedly freed Horacia has to discover her country all over again. She takes pity on poor losers, from street hawkers to prostitutes, and plans revenge. A calm sit (nearly 4 hours) by master Diaz won the Golden Lion in Venice.

The Philippines descend into darkness under a crazed dictator whilst facing a huge volcanic eruption in this political science fiction film by grand master Diaz.