- The film, which tells the vengeance of an unjustly imprisoned woman in a dark Philippines, was awarded the Golden Lion at the last Venice Festival
- The Woman Who Left is distributed in Spain by Abordar
- Lav Diaz was present in 2008’s edition due to the cycle “Puntos calientes”, together with his countrymen Raya Martin, Brillante Mendoza and Khavan de la Cruz, and his work could be watched in 2014’s edition, too
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Thursday, March 16, 2017. Filipino Lav Diaz’s work is again present at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival (March 31 – April 9). The 17th edition of the festival will present in its competitive section this singular and radical filmmaker’s last film, The Woman Who Left, in which he approaches the vengeance of a woman after her jail release because of an offense she did not commit. With this title, Diaz was awarded a Golden Lion at the last Venice Festival.
The Philippines are the new setting of Diaz’s story, born from a short story by Leon Tolstoy; a complex and dark Philippines that takes in the recent liberated Horacia Somorostro, played by actress and producer Charo Santos-Concio, at the heart of its personal and family dramas. The film, like the previous titles of the author, is extraordinarily long, four hours, which the director presents as well in a rather unusual format, the black and white.
A regular figure at festivals, Lav Diaz was awarded the Golden Lion at the last Venice Festival for this film, in an edition whose jury was headed by director Sam Mendes, and which has been shown at the Toronto, Mar del Plata, Rotterdam and Vienna competitions so far.
Lav Diaz’s last film submission to the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Film Festival’s official section, which has Cajamar Foundation’s support, places him on the competing list together with Raoul Peck and Aki Kaurismäki.
Lav Diaz at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Film Festival
In 2008, the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Film Festival received Lav Diaz’s visit due to the “Puntos calientes” section, which showed, among other emergent cinematographies, the Filipino one, and reunited him with his countrymen Raya Martin, Brillante Mendoza and Khavan de la Cruz, as well as with Malayan Woo Ming Jin. At that time, Death in the Land of Enchantos (Philippines, 2007, 544 min.) was screened. Likewise, in 2014, Lav Díaz’s cinematography was present at the Panorama section of the Festival, which included the title Norte, The End of History (Philippines, 2013, 250 min.)
Reviews
“Once again, it stands out the perfect composition of some shots built from the intimate logic of insignificant gestures. As if it were about an invisible ballet of the trifling nature. And so on, until putting up a brutal, magnetic, captivating and undoubtedly unrepeatable universe.” Luis Martínez, El Mundo
“Diaz depicts the social rehabilitation of that protagonist, played by television hostess Charo Santos, through a series of long steady shots in black and white, in a more limpid and accessible film than what may seem.” Álex Vicente, El País
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