28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Death in the Land of Encantos
director: Lav Diaz
original title: Kagadanan Sa Banwaan Ning Mga Engkanto
country: Philippines
year: 2007
running time: 541 min.
synopsis
Encanto is a spirit residing in the Philippine land. Diaz went to search for it in the Bicol region, which was severely impacted in 2006 by the typhoon Reming, also known as Durian. Instead of the intended documentary, he created a docufiction which introduces his trilogy on trauma, consisting of Melancholia (2008) and Florentina Hubaldo, CTE (2012). Diazʼs 9-hour-long opus tells the story of a fictional character, a Filipino poet Benjamin Agusan, who returns to his homeland from abroad. But instead of his home he finds a devastated land. Using an extraordinary visual language, the film is a meditation on loss and death, telling a story of individual trauma which transformed into a national one.biography
Lav Diaz (* 1958) is one of the key members of the slow cinema movement. He is a holder of a degree in economics, a poet and since the 1990s also a filmmaker. His films abound in a characteristic visual poetics that includes long, slow-paced scenes and very long footage. His 9-hour-long film Melancholia (2008) won the best film award at the Venice International Film Festival. In 2014 Diaz received the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival for From What Is Before.more about film
| director: | Lav Diaz |
