Lav Diaz surprise film wins at Venice Film Festival
MANILA, Philippines — The surprise return of acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz to the Venice International Film Festival resulted in victory after his movie "Makikiraan Po (Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors)" received the Premio Brien or Brian Award.
Awarded since 2006 and taken from the Monty Python satire "Life of Brian," the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics present the Brian Award films that "best promotes a seculaur vision of the world." and, through the lens union's social goals highlights values associated with:
- secularism, namely rationality and scientific thought
- democracy, pluralism, self-determination, freedom of conscience, expression and research
- the principle of equal opportunities in public institutions for all citizens, without discrimination based on sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and philosophical or religious beliefs
- direct opposition to theocracies and confessional fundamentalisms.
Past winners of the award are Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight," George Clooney's "The Ides of March," Pedro Almodovar's "The Room Next Door," Audrey Diwan's "Happening," Stephen Frears' "Philomena," Jasmila Žbani?'s "Quo Vadis, Aida?" and last year Paolo Sorrentino's "La grazia."
Diaz was in Venice to receive the award in person for "Makikiraan Po," which screened out of the main competition.
Set in 1617 Philippines, right in the middle of the Spanish colonization, the movie stars Bart Guingona as a Spanish friar and encomendero seeking to "tame" natives through Catholicism and is overseeing the construction of a church.
RELATED: Hirokazu Kore-eda's manga film charms critics in Venice
The priest tasks his son Dungwen (Christian Bables) — which was the film's original title — to supervise the transport of precious limestone, risking attacks from natives.
Also in the film are Isabel Sandoval, Yul Servo, Rafa Siguion-Reyna, Amado Arjay Babon, Hazel Orencio and Ronnie Lazaro. The latter two are frequent collaborators of Diaz, with Orencio also serving as a line producer.
This marks Servo's first movie in about a decade, having dedicated part of his career to politics, and an apt return at that, as his first film ever was Diaz's "Batang West Side."
Diaz has a close connection to Venice as his "Melancholia" won the Orizzonti Grand Prize in 2008 and he received the 2016 Golden Lion for "Ang Babaeng Humayo," starring Charo Santos-Concio.
He also won Best Director of the Horizons section in 2020 for "Genus, Pan," closed the section's 2007 edition with "Kagadanan sa Banwaan ning mga Engkanto," and premiered "Siglo ng Pagluluwal" (2011), "Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon" (2022), and "Phantosmia" (2024) at the festival.
RELATED: Affleck family affair at Venice for Casey's latest film 'Company'
- Latest
- Trending
