Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis |
| Country of production |
Philippines Singapore |
| original language |
Tagalog Spanish English |
| Publishing year | 2016 |
| length | 482 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lav Diaz |
| script | Lav Diaz |
| production |
Bianca Balbuena Paul Soriano |
| camera | Larry Manda |
| cut | Lav Diaz |
| occupation | |
| |
Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis (English-language festival title: A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery ) is a Black and White Filipino film by Lav Diaz from 2016. The plot of the film revolves around the Philippine Revolution and questions the myths surrounding it. Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis celebrated its world premiere on February 18, 2016 as part of the competition at the 66th Berlinale . With a running time of 482 minutes, it is the longest film that has ever been shown in competition at the Berlinale.
action
The plot of the film begins with the Filipino national poet José Rizal , who in anticipation of his execution composes his last poem Mi Ultimo Adios , which is performed twice in the course of the film. Those present at his execution are filled with pain and as a result Rizal remains one of the exponents of the revolution. In the course of the film, different, only weakly connected storylines alternate in their weighting. At the beginning there was an important meeting between Simoun and the Capitan General of the Philippines, in which Simoun's change of consciousness towards a revolutionary and his status as wanted by the Spaniards was explained. It becomes clear that the Capitan General seeks to fight the revolution by playing off the various factions against each other. His mistress, Cesaria Belarmino, helped the Spaniards to win against Andrés Bonifacio and the other revolutionaries by betraying them . The Spaniards are aware of their success against the Revolution safe and enjoy, for example, a demonstration of the cinematograph of the Lumière brothers .
The Capitan General enters into a connection with Tikbalang, who appears in male, female and androgynous incarnations, in order to observe the group around Gregoria de Jesus . This is the next major plot block that focuses on national hero Andrés Bonifacio and his wife Gregoria de Jesus. Bonifacio is wounded, captured, and taken to the mountains, where he is shot and his body is hidden. Gregoria de Jesus, together with the two women Aling Hule and Cesaria Belarmino and the priest Mang Karyo, go in search of her husband's body. They suspect they are on a mountain, on which they spend most of the film and comb the surroundings. They meet Tikbalang and a woman whose husband was also kidnapped and who offers them shelter. They also come into contact with a religious sect that is also trying to overcome Spanish colonial rule and refers to Sebastian Caneo, who is described half as a real reference, half as a mystical being. In the course of the search for Bonifacio's corpse, Cesaria Belarmino admits Gregoria de Jesus that she betrayed the cause of the revolution and in particular that of Bonifacio. Gregoria attacks Cesaria and is about to hit her with a stone, but gives up because she is not without guilt either.
The third larger storyline includes Simoun, who is shot by Basilio in an attempted murder and who is then brought out of the city to his uncle by his friend Isagani. Because of the wound, Simoun and Isagani have to rely on the support of a boatman and a farmer to transport them. They are betrayed by them and still reach their destination in the end. On the way, Isagani sees atrocities committed against villagers and meets with Simoun and the farmer accompanying them from the group around Gregoria de Jesus and Tikbalang at a feast held by the sect. As a result, Isagani and Simoun reach their destination. Uncle Isaganis takes care of the wounded man, who kills himself with poison when he hears by telegram that the Spaniards are coming for him. Before his death, he confesses that for personal reasons he played off the various factions of the revolution against one another. The film ends with the departure of Gregoria de Jesus, Cesaria Belarmino and Aling Hule vom Berg. In the voiceover, Gregoria explains that her unsuccessful search lasted 30 days.
background
The two Filipino companies Epicmedia Productions and Ten17P were the production companies of Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis . The companies Potocol and Akanga Film Asia from Singapore were co-producers. The Berlin- based distributor Films Boutique took over the world sales of the film . Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis has a long history of development. A first version of the script dates back to 1999, but Diaz was unable to secure funding for the film at this time. It wasn't until he met producer Bianca Balbuena through actor Ronnie Lazaro in 2011 that the film's development picked up speed again. Balbuena grew fond of the script and put the movie in the Asian Project Market of the Busan International Film Festival in 2012 a. As a result, she produced a short film version called Prologue to the Great Desaparecido with Dissidenz Films in 2013 , which was shown at the Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastián . In 2014, Balbuena was able to win over Paul Soriano to finance the film, so that shooting could begin in early 2015. A rough cut was shown at the Busan Film Festival's Asian Film Market in 2015 . The two actors John Lloyd Cruz and Piolo Pascual have been recognized as outstanding members of the cast due to their status as mainstream actors in the Philippines.
The world premiere of Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis took place on February 18, 2016 as part of the competition at the 66th Berlinale . With a running time of 482 minutes, it is the longest film that has ever been shown in competition at the Berlinale. Lav Diaz , who not only directed, but also wrote the script and edited the film, was previously represented at the Berlinale . At the 2000 Berlin International Film Festival , his second feature film Hubad Sa Ilalim Ng Buwan was shown in the forum's program. Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis is his first competition entry for one of the three big film festivals in Berlin, Cannes or Venice. Even before the film, Diaz had had experience with a film that was significantly excessively long. With Mula Sa Kung Ano Ang Noon , which has a running time of five and a half hours, he won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 2014 . Diaz himself was not happy with the focus of the discussion on the length of his film. So he told the press that he claimed to create art for which length was not a category:
“We're labeled 'the slow cinema' but it's not slow cinema, it's cinema. [...] I don't know why ... every time we discourse on cinema we always focus on the length. […] It's cinema, it's just like poetry, just like music, just like painting where it's free, whether it's a small canvas or it's a big canvas, it's the same… So cinema shouldn't be imposed on. "
“We are stigmatized as 'the slow cinema', but it's not slow cinema, it's cinema. [...] I don't know why ... every time we talk about films, the length is raised. […] It's cinema, it's like poetry, just like music, like a painting that doesn't matter whether it's been painted on a small or large canvas, it's the same… So filming shouldn't be imposed. "
The producer Bianca Balbuena therefore expressed her gratitude to the festival that no requests for cuts were made to the film team.
criticism
The reviews of Hela Sa Hiwagang Hapis particularly emphasized the length of eight hours and were divided in the assessment of the film. Fabian Wallmeier reviewed it for the Berlin-Brandenburg broadcasting company , came to an extremely positive rating and wished the film the award of the Golden Bear . He sharpened his assessment as follows: “Eight hours. Black-and-white. About the Filipino uprising against the Spanish colonial power. That doesn't just sound like an impertinence, it's also one - and at the same time the great masterpiece that outshines everything that the competition has been missing so far. ”Wallmeier described the camera as rigid, and Diaz's use of editing as extremely economical. Due to the selected aspect ratio of 4: 3, a particularly concentrated image arrangement was necessary. In contrast to Wallmeier's positive assessment, Carsten Beyer came to an ambivalent assessment for Kulturradio . He classified the film as a historical essay , praised the strong images and contrasts, but ultimately came to the following conclusion: “The erratic dramaturgy and the sometimes quite wooden actors make the eight hours a dubious pleasure - despite the bewitchingly beautiful images . "
Gunnar Decker reviewed the film for Neues Deutschland and wrote a slap . His conclusion was: “Everyone should have been spared that. Because the heroic epic about the struggle of the Filipino rebels in 1896 against the Spanish occupation forces seems as clumsy as an involuntary parody that does not want to end. The fact that one wants to show the 'mystery' and apparently 'deconstruct' it at the same time doesn't make things any better. On the contrary, you can no longer look through it at all and that is - given the duration of the event - not a pleasant feeling. "Hannah Lühmann provided Die Welt with a report on her cinema day and described the film as not easy to understand due to its complexity:" [ …] It's a film that plays with an infinite number of levels, one of which you probably don't even understand half of because they don't belong to what you were told when you were little. But what one understands is the initial, still individual horror at the death of a person, the meanness of the execution, the horror when death is still something individual, nothing mass. ”For Lühmann, Hela Sa Hinwagang Hapis was a physical one Experience and ultimately offer a hopeful outlook: “The screams, the songs, the chirping - all of this seeps into you, becomes physical. When you hear Hule, one of the three women from the group, report, in the natural length of everyday language, how her two sons were slaughtered in front of her eyes, then one almost asks oneself how it actually works, with empathy, in Cinema, when things are more condensed, when the consciousness is not boiled over by the illusion of reality on the screen. By the way, 'Hela Sa Hiwagang Hapis' is a hopeful film. But you only understand that at the end. At the very end."
The ambivalence in the criticism was also evident internationally. For example, Deborah Young criticized Diaz's editing for the Hollywood Reporter , which slows down the film and makes it difficult to understand. Young also missed a message that could last over the eight hours of the film, which is characterized as "visual poem". She rated the film a little weaker than Mula Sa Kung Ano Ang Noon , the winner in Locarno 2014. Her final assessment again expressed her ambivalent attitude: “The material is so rich that it needs to be dealt with in a focused film . Given the revolution that is taking place away from the camera, it's also a very internalizing film. Diaz has a strong sense of human comedy when cowardice and deceit go hand in hand with heroism and solidarity. But to reduce all of this to an indecisive intellectual, a half-insane wife and a few cackling bad guys simplifies the story too much. ” Guy Lodge , who saw the film for Variety , also judged him negatively. He concluded: “This eight-hour morning appeal for the lives and freedoms lost in the Philippine Revolution of 1896 may be a serious concern of the director; However, it is also a work of stony, public-hostile indulgence. […] Diaz's oversized tapestry of historical facts, folklore and cinematic poetry is certainly ambitious in its expressiveness, but falls into a kind of pathos and didactic rhetoric that his massive previous films Norte, the End of History and From What Is Before had so elegantly avoided. "
Awards
Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis received the Silver Bear for the Alfred Bauer Prize 2016.
Web links
- Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Film data sheet with videos of the press conference and the red carpet
- International trailer on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b data sheet for the film. (PDF) In: berlinale.de. Retrieved February 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Edwin P. Sallan: Lav Diaz's 'Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis' to compete in Berlin. (No longer available online.) In: interaksyon.com. January 12, 2016, archived from the original on February 20, 2016 ; accessed on February 20, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Fabian Wallmeier: Extra long, overwhelming, outstanding. In: rbb-online.de. February 18, 2016, accessed February 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Michael Roddy: Eight-hour Berlinale film focuses on Philippine revolution. In: cnnphilippines.com. February 19, 2016, accessed February 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Carsten Beyert: Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis. (No longer available online.) In: kulturradio.de. February 18, 2016, archived from the original on March 3, 2016 ; Retrieved February 20, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Gunnar Decker: Commune and jungle camp. In: neue-deutschland.de. February 20, 2016, accessed February 20, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Hannah Lühmann: Madness in the woods. In: welt.de. February 19, 2016, accessed February 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Deboray Young: 'A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery' ('Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis'): Berlin Review. In: hollywoodreporter.com. February 19, 2016, accessed on February 20, 2016 (English): “There is a richness here that strains to be channeled into a focused film. With the whole revolution taking place off camera, it is also a very interiorized film. Diaz has great feeling for the human comedy, where cowardice and betrayal alternate with heroism and solidarity. But reducing everything to an indecisive intellectual, a half-mad wife and some cackling evil-doers rather simplifies the tale. "
- ↑ Guy Lodge: Berlin Film Review: 'A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery'. In: variety.com. February 19, 2016, accessed on February 20, 2016 (English): “This eight-hour-plus mourning cry for the lives and liberties lost to the 1896 Philippine Revolution may rep a sincere spillage of its creator's soul, but it's also a work of stony, audience-opposed self-indulgence. […] Diaz's latest super-sized tapestry of historical fact, folklore and cine-poetry is typically ambitious in its expressionism - but sees the helmer venturing into the kind of declamatory, didactic rhetoric that his recent stunners 'Norte, the End of History' and 'From What Is Before' so elegantly avoided. "
