Hazel Orencio

One of the most influential and audacious filmmakers, Lav Diaz returns to this Festival with this epic meditation on the role of the artist and the rise of fundamentalism in the world today. His subject, a filmmaker, struggles to finish his latest work, while dealing with pressure from his co-workers, festival programmers, girlfriends and the press (tiff.net)

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. (mubi.com)

The Philippines, 1972. Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad and houses are burned. Ferdinand E. Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law.

The search for the body of Andres Bonifacio. (imdb)

In the year 2050, the Philippines braces for the coming of the fiercest storm ever to hit the country. And as the wind and waters start to rage, poets wander the streets.

A woman from the end of the 19th century visits modern day Philippines and observes three interwoven stories: that of a prostitute, a group of criminals and a musician. (Mubi)

An anti-musical musical, a rock opera, that delves into mythology. (imdb)

It is the year 2034 AD and Southeast Asia has been in the dark for the last three years, literally, because the sun hasn't shone as a result of massive volcanic eruptions at the Celebes Sea in 2031. Madmen control countries, communities, enclaves and bubble cities. Cataclysmic epidemics razed over the continent. Millions have died and millions have left. (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs)

This is a Filipino omnibus film about three different journeys.

Lav Diaz is back in Venice with yet another story of marginalization shot in vivid black and white and reflecting on the notions of "human" and "humanity".

Erwin Romulo, the best friend of the late film critic Alexis Tioseco, recalls the events after the critic and his girlfriend Nika Bohinc's murder during a buglary in their home in Quezon City. Lav Diaz makes use of one long take to allow Romulo an uninterrupted narration of the events. (imdb)

Faced with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody murders and brazen lies, ethically conflicted police lieutenant Hermes Papauran continues his struggle to find resolution to a 15-year-old case around a volcanic ash laden landscape and an impenetrable lake.

It had been 325 years that the Philippines was under Spanish rule when the Revolution, led by Andres Bonifacio, exploded on August 21, 1896. But on May 9, 1897, Bonifacio was charged with death sentence by rival revolutionaries led by Emilio Aguinaldo. Bonifacio's body has never been found. His wife, Gregoria De Jesus, searched for his body in the mountains for thirty days, calling for Andres and even spirits to help her find her husband.

Hilarion Zabala has a mysterious, recurring olfactory problem. A counselor/psychiatrist suspects a lingering case of phantosmia, a phantom smell, and possibly caused by a deep psychological fracture. One recommended radical cure is that Hilarion must go back and deal with the darkest currents of his past life in the military service. Reassigned in the very remote Pulo Penal Colony, he must also confront the horrific realities of his present situation.