From left: Scenes from “Ang Panahon ng Halimaw,” “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon” and “Batang West Side”
Lav Diaz’s “Halimaw” is still going places.
Next stop for the martial law musical “Ang Panahon ng Halimaw” is the Vienna International Film Festival in Austria, from Oct. 25 to Nov. 8.
Also known as the Viennale, this fête is regarded as “Austria’s most important international cinema event, as well as one of the oldest and best-known festivals in the German-speaking world.”
On the Viennale website, critic Roger Koza described Diaz’s film as a “heterodox 274-minute musical.”
In recounting “the horror story,” that is the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, the Filipino filmmaker utilizes “an aesthetic procedure … [that] reinforces the right distance to think about the practices of fascism without yielding to the emotional impact derived from it,” Koza noted.
Koza asserted that “the result is fascinating because the aesthetic invocation of evil is never an accomplice to the methods of torture and punishment.”
Bart Guingona (left) and Piolo Pascual in “Ang Panahon
ng Halimaw”
Diaz said of his film’s continuing journey in festivals abroad: “Progressive engagement must be relentless on all fronts now! Labis nang nakababahala ang pagyurak sa mga institusyon ng ating bayan. Binababoy na nang husto ang Konstitusyon. Ang Konstitusyon ang kaluluwa ng ating bayan. Huwag nating hayaang patuloy nilang ginagahasa ito para lang sa kanilang interes.”
History isn’t spared either, as revisionism has become rampant these days. Diaz declared, “Ang kasaysayan ang ugat ng ating lahi. Labis-labis na ang kademonyohan ng rebisyonismo. Parang ang dali na lang nilang baguhin ang lahat. Kilala natin ang mga halimaw.”
Also, three of Diaz’s films—“Batang West Side,” “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon” and “Ang Panahon ng Halimaw”—will be shown at the UP Film Institute (UPFI) in Diliman, Quezon City, as part of a program dubbed “Martial Law Never Again.”
At UPFI, “Batang West Side” will be shown on Sept. 3 (4 p.m.); “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon” on Sept. 11 (4 p.m.); and “Ang Panahon ng Halimaw” on Sept. 19 and 28 (5 p.m.).
These three films will also be screened at the Cinema Centenario, Quezon City, as part of the Never Forget Film Festival, “to remember those who suffered during martial law,” Diaz remarked. “Ang Panahon ng Halimaw” (Sept. 15, 11 a.m., and Sept. 23, 4 p.m.), “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon” (Sept. 22, 11 a.m.) and “Batang West Side” (Sept. 29, 6:30 p.m.).