Entertainment
Lav Diaz competes for Venice Film Festival with “Lahi, Hayop”
FILE: Filipino film maker Lavrente Indico Diaz at the Berlinale on 18 February 2016 (Photo By Paul Katzenberger – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Award-winning filmmaker Lav Diaz is once again gracing the Venice Film Festival with his new work “Lahi, Hayop” (“Genus Pan”), which will be one of his shortest movies.
61-year-old Diaz is known for his contributions to slow cinema or long narrative films such as the 2004 film “Evolution of a Filipino Family” that is 625 minutes or 10 hours and 43 minutes long. However, his entry for the 77th Venice Film Festival will only run for 150 minutes or two hours and 30 minutes.
“Lahi, Hayop” is part of the 19 entries selected for the Orizzonti competition which is described by the festival as “an international competition dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema.” The other 18 entries can be viewed here.
The festival’s website has yet to release a synopsis but the film’s main cast is composed of Bart Guingona, DMs Boongaling, Nanding Josef, Hazel Orencio, Joel Saracho, and Noel Sto. Domingo.
It can be remembered that Diaz’s “Ang Babaeng Humayo” (“The Woman Who Left”), starring Charo Santos and John Lloyd Cruz, won the Venice Film Festival’s main competition back in 2016. However, two of his films entered into the Orizzonti competition also won before; namely “Kagadanan sa Banwaan ning mga Engkanto” (“Death in the Land of Encantos”) got the Golden Lion Special Mention in 2007 and “Melancholia” bagged the grand prize in 2008.
Venice Film Festival 2020 will run from September 2 to 12.
