From What Is Before

From What Is Before (2014) directed by Lav Diaz

Viewed August 7, 2024

Plot:

This is a hard film to summarize. The challenge lies not in the mystery of the events (though mysterious they are) but in the film's epic length (5 hours and 38 minutes) and its sprawling cast of characters.

The film takes place in a remote, Philippine village during the reign of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s. Among the central figures are Joselina, a healer who herself is afflicted with a mysterious illness that results in spastic motions; her sister, Tinang, struggling to make ends meet because of the time she spends caring for Joselina; and Tony, the winemaker who lives next door who covets (and eventually rapes) Joselina. There's also Hakob, a young boy who thinks his parents are isolated in a leper colony when, as it is later revealed, he was nearly murdered by his father after killing his mother; and Itang, an annoying busybody who goes around peddling her wares (but who turns out to be a government spy.)

Eventually, the film reveals the political aims of the film. Three hours in, government soldiers arrive. They claim to be there to protect the village but are more intent on rooting out insurgents. Among others, they suspect that Father Guido, the village priest, is sympathetic to the revolutionaries.

The film ends with some shocking events. Joselina kills her sister and herself by jumping into the sea, witnessed by Father Guido. Guido lies to his parishioners, saying that they have simply left the village (as many have.) But Hakob also saw what happened, and so had Tony, who confesses to Guido that he had impregnated Joselina. Then Father Guido is confronted by the revolutionaries who stop him from re-entering the village. In the last shot of the film, we see them torturing and killing Guido and his assistant.

Commentary:

But enough of the plot. What makes this film special is the luminous black and white cinematography. Every frame is a perfectly composed, picture-book image.

Diaz shoots the entire film in long shot, extreme long shot, and really, really extreme long shot. Scenes often begin with a landscape which appears to be empty, but in which eventually we discern figures in the distance or hidden by foliage. Diaz lingers over these images, allowing us time to see, explore, and discover. The vast, empty landscapes mirror the isolation and despair of the characters, while the slow, deliberate pacing allows the tension to build gradually, drawing viewers deeper into the barrio’s unraveling mystery.

So yes, the film is long, but it is not boring. If I had had a chance to see this film in a theater, I think it would have captivated me throughout. Despite the less than ideal conditions of streaming it over four days, I still had an engrossing experience. I hope to have a chance to see one of Diaz's films in a theater some day. I can only imagine how much more captivating it would be on the big screen, where the slow reveal of Diaz’s images could be fully appreciated.

As it turns out, this film is not even his longest film. He has three (!) films that are nine hours long, two that are seven hours long, and one that is six hours. So I guess this one counts as a short:)