Director Lav Diaz’s latest historical drama explores the colonial era in the Philippine archipelago roughly one hundred years after Magellan’s arrival. Following his previous work “Magellan,” which premiered at Cannes, this new film functions as both a companion piece and counterpoint, shifting from colorful depiction to stark black-and-white cinematography while centering the experiences of those subjected to colonization rather than its architects.
The narrative unfolds in 1617 Luzon, where Padre Enciso, a Spanish missionary, has been tasked with “civilizing” the region through church construction and Christian conversion. The priest’s methods prove brutal, including forced labor expeditions that claim numerous lives and sexual exploitation of local widows. His proposed church becomes a symbol of colonial domination imposed upon the lush jungle landscape and its indigenous inhabitants.
Diaz deliberately paces the story to mirror the mounting tensions between colonizers and resisters. Key characters include Dungwen, a mixed-race man reluctantly conscripted into labor; Babayeng Indimatadog, a traditional healer imprisoned for refusing conversion; and Bari Bari, a bandit challenging Spanish authority through raids. The filmmaker employs naturalistic dialogue and careful character development to portray how colonial violence operates at both institutional and personal levels.
The film examines how systems of exploitation and subjugation gradually become normalized, depicting colonialism’s “mayhem and mundanity” through the everyday suffering of ordinary people navigating impossible circumstances under foreign rule.
Originally reported by Variety →
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