Sunday | April 12, 2015 4:00 pm

From What Is Before
(Mula sa kung ano ang noon)

Directed by Lav Diaz.
With Perry Dizon, Roeder Camañag, Hazel Orencio.
Philippines, 2014, DCP, color, 338 min.
English, Filipino and Tagalog with English subtitles.
DCP source: filmmaker

The latest of Diaz’s epic fiction features draws inspiration from some of the filmmaker’s early memories. Taking place over the two years before Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines in 1972, the film portrays a small coastal town in which the sense of community is slowly unraveling. After spending some time presenting the landscape and inhabitants of the village, Diaz introduces a series of mysterious occurrences that seems to portend a threat somehow both at hand and ungraspable. Against this uneasy backdrop, the film’s ensemble of characters responds to the unrest in a variety of ways, from ritual to crime.