Soliman Cruz (left), Joel Torre (right) and other cast members in “Siglo ng Pagluluwal”
Lav Diaz’s “Siglo ng Pagluluwal (Century of Birthing)” can be viewed on the website Mubi for a whole month. The 360-minute film premiered in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival in 2011 and was later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival that same year.
The Mubi site describes the drama film as “an epic meditation on the role of the artist and the rise of fundamentalism … which will destroy the world.”
Variety’s Robert Koehler remarks that, with this film, “Diaz continues to push, prod and reinvent his personal yet universal cinema … serving up ideas on matters of belief, creation and freedom that ultimately skew in a more hopeful direction than some of [his] recent epics.”
The acclaimed film, which follows three narrative threads at once, features Angel Aquino, Joel Torre, Perry Dizon, Angeli Bayani, Soliman Cruz, Hazel Orencio, Roeder Camañag and other Diaz regulars in the cast.
Mubi, a website that specializes in art house cinema, is presenting this first-ever online retrospective of Diaz’s films for an entire year (until October 2017).
Dubbed “It’s About Time: The Cinema of Lav Diaz,” the “monumental” retro showcases such award-winning films as “Melancholia,” “Death in the Land of Encantos,” “Florentina Hubaldo, CTE,” “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon” and “Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan.”
An “online cinematheque,” Mubi is available in 200 territories all over the world. —BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR.