Pascal Grenier for Cinetalk.net
After 30 years of imprisonment for a crime she didn’t commit, a sixty-year old woman plans on taking revenge on her ex-boyfriend.
Golden Lion at Venice Interntional Film Festival 2016, this 226-minutes long drama from Filipino auteur Lav Diaz is absorbing and powerful. Despite its revenge thematic, it is a story of forgiveness and transcendence rather than vigilantism concentrating on emotions and feelings and avoiding melodrama. It evolves through various encounters that develop between this sorrowful woman and, notably, a drunken hunchback ballot-seller and a transvestite male prostitute. A strong point is the performance of the lead actress Charo Santos-Concio. After a 17-year break from films, she makes a strong comeback. She is wonderful in the title role.
The Woman Who Left is a minimalist work shot almost entirely on large static or master shots, all in beautiful monochrome black & white, . While its running time and slow pace may put-off some viewers, it is nonetheless a rewarding and immersive tale of gratitude and reconciliation.
Festival screening:
October 16, 7:00 PM (Cinématheque québécoise)
