From What is Before

Mule sa kung Ano ang Noon

DIRECTOR: Lav Diaz   COUNTRY: Philippines YEAR: 2014   LANGUAGE(S): Tagalog  SUBTITLES: English   RUNNING TIME: 338 min  

SECTION: Vorspiel/Prelude 2015

SYNOPSIS

Mysterious things happen in a paradisiac village. Screams can be heard from the woods, cows are hacked to death, a dying man lies at a crossroads and houses burn. Military activity escalates. Brutal militias take over. Ferdinand Marcos declares martial law with Proclamation No. 1081.

The avant-garde filmmaker and genius chronicler of his country, Lav Diaz looks back at 1972 and depicts in minute detail how a healthy village community is gradually destroyed from without. With epic tenacity, plenty of tenderness and humanism Diaz depicts a disappearing world with breathtaking images. Although almost unknown to German audiences, the works of this superior award-winning Philippine director are admired at festivals all over the world. FROM WHAT IS BEFORE won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 2014 and provided one of the greatest film experiences of the past year.

LAV DIAZ
Lav Diaz or Lavrente Indico Diaz is a acclaimed Filipino independent filmmaker, born 1958 in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, Mindanao, Philippines. He works as director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer,
poet, composer, production designer and actor all at once. Diaz, whose parents were teacher at local schools, studied at the Mowelfund Film Institute. He has won several international awards such as the award for Best Picture at the Singapore International Film Festival. His films often tackle issues regarding the current social and political state of the Philippines. He is especially notable for the length of his films, some of which run for up to eleven hours. In 2013 he won the International Nuremberg Human Rights Film Award at NIHRFF 8 with NORTE – THE END OF HISTORY. His latest fiction film FROM WHAT IS BEFORE won the Golden Leopard at the International Film Festival of Locarno in 2014.

FILMOGRAPHY
West Side Kid (2002), Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004), Death in the Land of Encantos (2007), Melancholia (2008), Florentina Hubaldo (2012), Norte – The End of History (2013), From What is
Before (2014)

SCRIPT Lav Diaz PRODUCER: Lav Diaz   CAMERA: Lav Diaz  EDITOR: Lav Diaz  MUSIC: Marc Locsin   WITH: Hazel Orencio, Perry Dizon, Roeder Camanag, Karenina Haniel

PRODUCTION: Film Development Council of the Philippines, Sine Olivia Pilipnas   WORLD SALES: Sine Olivia Pilipinas