Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga engkanto

Lav Diaz follows after his enormous (in all senses) "Heremias" with this even more complex and longer "Dead in the land of encantos". The first ten minutes contains all the keys to the whole piece. It's the devastation of a place that everyone says it was very beautiful but not especially for its real charms but because it was their land and it was pure and wild. On the contrary, the beauty still alive: the bodies of young women, the poetry, the light, the sound of the rain drops hitting the palm trees and also the mud and the destroyed houses after the catastrophe. Diaz takes his time to think about how can they face the disaster and in the meantime brings an elegiac ode to the unstoppable river of life.

i just got home from the cinemateque, where i watched my first lav diaz movie. i was surprised... i like the fact that the camera leaves some space to the actors and to whatever is happening. it captures the whole picture and lets the audience grasp the location, conditions, people, ... if a person appears in the back of the frame, camera waits patiently for him/her to come closer. because of that, it is relaxing to watch the movie, cause you're not just being bombarded with shiny images all the time. the different issues this film touches (art, philosophy, religion, love, family, politics, health, nature...) can satisfy any critical viewer. it is a mixture of documentary and poetry, emphasizes the ties between man and nature, water and fire, questions god ("god knows the truth and waits" - Leo Tolstoy) and the authority. the only (miniature) problem of the movie is its length - i suggest you pick a movie theater with comfy seats (and don't forget to bring food and water). still, i highly recommend it!