by Allan Fish
continuing the small series of pieces on films from 2000-2009 which were seen too late for the countdown
(Philippines 2007 540m) not on DVD
Aka. Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga Engkanto
The Tomb of Mother Nature
p Lav Diaz d/w Lav Diaz ph Lav Diaz ed Lav Diaz m Lav Diaz art Dante Perez
Roeder Camanag (Benjamin Agusan), Angeli Bayani (Catalina), Perry Dizon (Teodoro),
When the super typhoon Durian ripped through the rural Filipino area known as the Bicol in November 2006, one cannot help but have responded with a sense of déjà vu. Images of the wreckage and desolation wrought firstly by the Sri Lankan tsunami of 2004 and then hurricane Katrina in 2005, one could forgiven for thinking that the Book of Revelation was being writ in letters large enough to even impress C.B.de Mille. A fortnight after the first distressing scenes relayed around the world on CNN, director Lav Diaz journeyed to the Bicol region surrounding the village of Padang, the area where, but a few years earlier, he’d shot his docu-drama Evolution of a Filipino Family and where he’d also made Heremias. His original intention was to make a documentary, to film the devastation for himself. Interviews were conducted with various dispossessed, but still thankful to be alive, locals. Yet somehow the documentary wasn’t enough, he needed to express his feelings in a more narrative-focused way, so that though the interview footage was used intermittently through the piece, they would be merely footnotes to the piece.
The main story focuses on a poet, Benjamin Agusan, who has been living for several years in the Russian town of Kaluga and who, upon hearing about the tragedy, returns to his Bicol village to find out what happened to his parents and family. He finds that they are all dead, some buried alive, but he also meets up with two old friends; firstly his former lover, artist and sculptor Catalina, who he left over a decade earlier, and a fellow poet, Teodoro. All three have their spectres, corporeal or otherwise, and their recollections, ruminations and emotional traumas form the core of the film. (more…)
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 