Venice Out of CompetitionTrue StoryHuman Rights/Labor/SocialHistory/War
The Philippines under Spanish colonial rule in 1617. Father Enciso rules with violence, indulges in sexual exploitation, dismisses the indigenous people’s folk beliefs as savage, and forces them to convert to Catholicism. He orders his son Dungwen to transport blocks of marble for the construction of a church, and Dungwen and others must travel over 50 kilometers along a perilous route to evade the notorious robber Baribari. The church Father Enciso seeks to build is not a sacred symbol of salvation but evidence of violence, stained with the blood and forced labor of the indigenous people. Lav Diaz, who had shaken the mythical origins of colonialism in his previous film Magellan (2025), turns to the micro-level material foundations through which colonial order is established - land, labor, and religion. The original Tagalog title, ‘Makikiraan Po’ meaning ‘let us through,’ is a desperate plea for passage toward a history and community that have been cut off. Summoning the ghosts and memories of violence hidden behind Western order, this film is a record of Diaz’s fierce resistance and self-reflection as he seeks to reconstruct an archive of erased history.
Programme note by KANG Dongho
Stills3
Screenings5
Thu, 10/08
16:3019:26
CGV Centum City 5
111Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Fri, 10/09
14:0016:31
LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 10
252KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Sat, 10/10
19:0021:31
LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 8
346KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Mon, 10/12
13:1015:41
LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 9
537KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Born in Mindanao, Philippines, in 1958, Lav Diaz primarily explores the nation’s social and political struggles. He has earned major accolades at leading film festivals, including the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival for From What Is Before (2014), the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Woman Who Left (2016), and the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival for A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (2016). His other directorial works include Melancholia (2008), Prologue to the Great Desaparecido (2013), When the Waves Are Gone (2022), Essential Truths of the Lake (2023), Phantosmia (2024), and Magellan (2025).
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
