Top 20 Alternative Picks for Cannes 2013: Lav Diaz’s Norte, the End of History

Norte, the End of History – Lav Diaz

Section: Un Certain Regard

Buzz: Buzz: Lav Diaz can get ghetto-ized as that Filipino director who makes obscenely long films (which, his films really are often way too long), but he’s also one of the best Asian filmmakers working today (his eight-hour Melancholia is a flat-out masterpiece). Strikingly prolific considering the length of his films, the Twitterverse was quick to tease his latest – <em>only</em> four hours and ten minutes long – as a misplaced submission to the festival’s Short Film Corner. Alas, Diaz is one of the most avant-garde and sui generis directors in this year’s event, so this should be a refreshing break from the (relatively) straight-forward routes of 98% of the rest of the pack…for those with butts brave enough to give it a shot.

The Gist:<em>A man is wrongly jailed for murder while the real killer roams free. The murderer is an intellectual frustrated with his country’s never-ending cycle of betrayal and apathy. The convict is a simple man who finds life in prison more tolerable when something mysterious and strange starts happening to him.</em>