Pearly waves wash away the last remnants of Filipino innocence, the sun’s rays are replaced by a foreboding night, and two men approach one another in the eternal silence of an exotic landscape. Lieutenant Hermes and Sergeant Macabantay were once members of the government’s most effective tool in its war on drugs, but these enforcers of the law have become victims of their own conscience and enemies awaiting a day of reckoning. Lav Diaz’s Dumas-esque epic speaks to viewers like a hypnotic danse macabre, with the director masterfully weaving together a noir aesthetic with Western tropes while challenging the questionable regime of President Duterte and the sick morality of a country with a habit of glorifying its criminals.
Vojtěch Kočárník
187 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Lav Diaz
/ Screenplay Lav Diaz
/ Dir. of Photography Larry Manda
/ Sound Hugo Leitão
/ Editor Lav Diaz
/ Art Director Lav Diaz
/ Producer Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew, Jean-Christophe Simon, Joaquim Sapinho, Marta Alves
/ Production Epicmedia Productions
/ Coproduction Films Boutique, Rosa Filmes, Snowglobe
/ Cast John Lloyd Cruz, Ronnie Lazaro, Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino, Dms Boongaling
/ Sales Films Boutique
Lav Diaz (1958, Datu Paglas, Philippines). Selected filmography: Death in the Land of Encantos (2007), Melancholia (2008), Norte, the End of History (2013), From What Is Before (2014), The Woman Who Left (2016), Season of the Devil (2018), When the Waves Are Gone (2022).
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