Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan

The film opens with the character Fabian having a heated discussion with two of his lecturers. He tries to elaborate on his philosophies on life and society, how eradication of bad (evil) elements is the only way to progress. From his conversations with his law school friends, we understand that he has left college due to depression and discontent in life, his disillusionment with his country, whose history is marred by betrayals and unpunished crimes. His upbringing and behaviour makes us realise he's a sociopath, feeling distant from almost everything around. Trying to put his theory into practice, he murders an unsympathetic moneylender, and unavoidably (unplanned), her daughter as well.

Loosely based on Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment', Lav Diaz's four-hour saga explores how a certain crime affects the lives of three individuals - highly intelligent but depressed Fabian who commits the murder, poor and good-hearted Joaquin who's wrongly convicted of the murder, and Eliza (Joaquin's wife) who now has to work endlessly in order to take care of her two kids and Joaquin's sister. The guilt consumes Fabian and drives him to insanity; though he evades getting caught, he feels his soul is corrupted forever. Joaquin maintains his innocence and incorruptible goodness, hoping it results in eventual justice. And Eliza keeps on persevering in the face of injustice, and carries on with her life in eternal despair. Thus, in the three characters we see hope, despair, and the lack of both.

Mostly taken in long takes, with no close-ups or background music, Lav Diaz immerses us into the lives of these three people, with scenes mostly covering their routine activities or conversations. Even without the usual sentimental gimmicks, Diaz gives us his pessimistic and heartbreaking worldview, where life is punctuated with inequality and injustice. I wouldn't exclude a single minute from the movie's 250-minute runtime (which many viewers complain about) because the film progresses at the right pace, giving us enough time to contemplate on the themes surrounding the story - existence, evil (its presence, and whether to destroy the source of it, or evil itself), crime, blame, morality, conscience, injustice, perseverance, hope, universal love and fate; without contemplation and debate (internal or otherwise), watching this film would be wasted potential. For example, blame; who or what should Eliza blame for their situation? The justice system which wrongly but swiftly convicts her husband, or their lawyer who inefficiently pleaded their case, or the murderer who ran away from the scene, or the moneylender herself for being so unscrupulous that her husband attacked her earlier, or the accident which caused the moneylender to have a vicious grip on their lives, or herself for stopping her husband to work abroad before all this mess? So, who is she supposed to be angry at?

With spectacular setting and talented actors (especially, the talented Miss Angeli Bayani), Director Lav Diaz efficiently weaves an sweeping and symmetric tale, in which all the elements make complete sense by the end. No matter how much or what I write, it couldn't possibly illustrate the film's complete worth. Ultimately, 'Norte' is poignant and devastating, and is bound to leave a scar on one's soul.

Lav Diaz is famous (or infamous) for long runtimes. This one isn't too long (for Diaz's standards) but it is quite long and stretchy. If it was cut down to say, a 3-hour runtime, the story would still be effectively told. Nonetheless, the film still managed to hold my attention. Throw me a movie with a countryside view, a laid-back province environment, a village by the sea, and a green scenery, and I will surely glue my eyes on it.

The movie revolves around the lives of 3 central characters, played by versatile and veteran supporting casts. These central characters I'm referring to are 1) Fabian- a genius turned lunatic 2) Joaquin- a family man indicted for a crime he never committed and 3) Elisa- the perfect example of a strong woman.

It's so hard to choose which of the three characters most affected us, or who most most realistically depicts how sad and cruel society is. Their lives are so colorful that in the turn of events, one can only ponder on how cruel can fate be.

I would give a special shout out to Sid Lucero, who plays Fabian in the movie. Fabian is an interesting character. He was a former law student whose intellect could have made him bar topnotcher. He likes talking about philosophy, conspiracies, politics, history--smart man. But I guess what he had in intellect, he lacked in rational thinking. He ran out of his mind because he was probably eaten by guilt. He was someone who can't control his emotions. And this led him to do crazy things. And this, ladies and gentleman, was very well acted by no less than Sid Lucero. I can't even think of someone else doing the role than him. Then again, Sid Lucero has already proved his versatility and craftsmanship that it's no longer a question.

At first I didn't know what's the relation between Norte and the movie. I found out later on that the film was shot in the northern most part of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Thus, the "North". As to the "end of history" part, well, it could be both literal and metaphorical.

The movie has serious and deep themes which spices up the whole movie. There's murder, poverty, guilt, judgement, incest, hope, faith, longing, remorse...name it. All of these are depicted in the three lives connected to each other by fate.

The no. 1 strength this movie has to offer is the brilliant performances from the actors. They brought the whole story, which is already great by itself, even greater.

Personally, I would like to edit this film into a much shorter version simply because some scenes are understood and don't need to be repeated.

Apart from that, this is a very powerful film with a very powerful message/premise.

I have never see a film who's main character's journey is so unpredictable yet so inevitable.

Slowly slowly, it all adds up in the end.

I believe this director's usual work is longer that 4 hours. I don't think I could go through that again, but I hope that the director finds a way to reach a larger audience with the same powerful messages in a shorter space of time (maybe 2 1/2 hours?).

Norte: Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History) clocking in at 250 minutes is utterly breathtaking in scope and visually remains a staggeringly beautiful, poetic masterpiece. On a symbolic level, it is a transcendent story of exploration, self-discovery and redemption, realistically portraying the strength, and equal fragility, of the human condition. The film elaborately investigates the relationship between man and his socio-political circumstances - in this case the extreme poverty of the Philippines in correlation with brutal capitalism on the rise. Most importantly however it explores the spiritual relation between humanity and God.

Lav Diaz pushes the boundaries of the medium with this tour de force, visually and thematically, leading us on a long, contemplative journey of discovery. Through his deeply intimate approach and glorious camera-work he represents human frailty at its most basic, acting as a resolute, poetic meditation on the human condition.

Diaz's cerebral masterwork is nothing short of high art, proving him to be one of the true visionaries working in contemporary world cinema.

Niemand bleibt hier. Who said that? A narrator in images widening the knowledge of the other side of the world. Incredible suction and depth in some pictures. Deeply related with Andrei Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr. And Jacques Tati? But most of the time the images co-exist with a story. Sometimes even words. And expressions. Lav Diaz fumbles in terms of dialogue and instruction of actors. Sometimes it slips into the conventional.