English Title: Death in the Land of Encantos
Black and white, 540 mins
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A Filipino poet named Benjamin Agusan (Roeder Camañag) is the hapless native who returns to his hometown Padang to witness the aftermath of the super typhoon. For the past seven years, Benjamin had been living in an old town called Kaluga in Russia. With his grant and residency, he taught and conducted workshops in a university. The poet published two books of sadness and longing in the process. In Russia, Benjamin was able to shoot video collages, fell in love with a Slavic beauty, buried a son, and almost went mad. He came back to bury his dead-father, mother, sister and a lover. He came back to face Mount Mayon, the raging beauty and muse of his youth. He came home to confront the country that he so loved and hated, the Philippines. He came back to die in the land of his birth. He wanders around the obliterated village meeting old friends and lovers.
Trailer
Reviews
Ronnie Scheib, “Death in the Land of Encantos”, Variety, Oct. 2, 2007
Oliver Seguret, “Diaz, The Eye of the Cyclone”, Liberation.fr
Srikanth Srinivasan, “The Films Of Lav Diaz”, The Seventh Art Blog
Gertjan Zhuillof, IFFR Programmer note
Lukas Foerster, Lav Diaz: mini-dossier, The canine condition
Allan Fish, “Death in the Land of Encantos – 2007, Lav Diaz”, Wonders in the Dark, Oct. 9, 2010
Noli Manaig, “DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCANTOS (Lav Diaz, 2008)”, Closely Watched Frames, May 24, 2013
Jurij Meden, “Death in The Land of Encantos”, KINO Magazine
Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez, “Unmoving Cinema”, YCC Film Desk
Nil Baskar, “Death in the Land of Encantos”: Poetic Post-mortem
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