LFF 2016 PREVIEW: THE WOMAN WHO LEFT

'Dickensian in scope, this is a great achievement from an exemplar of the art'

Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

'One of [Lav Diaz's] best'

Lorenzo Esposito, Cinema Scope

'Diaz's formal powers [are] at full strength'

Guy Lodge, Variety

It was set to be Sebastien Lifshitz's The Lives of Therese, taking the place of the penultimate screening of the 23 on my slate at the London Film Festival this month. His Cannes Queer Palm winner was indeed one of my most-anticipated, but much as it's a shame to need to abandon it, it is indeed a need. Lav Diaz's The Woman Who Left is scheduled for its British premiere at the same time, and as the dedicated Diaz fanatic that I am (both Norte, the End of History and From What Is Before were my favourite films at LFF 2013 and 2014 respectively), it was a no-brainer. His second film this year, following his 8-hour A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, also a prize-winner at Berlin, The Woman Who Left claimed a second major festival award at Venice last month, winning the Golden Lion and marking the single greatest accomplishment for any Filipino film in history. And so the new Film #22 on my LFF visit this year assumes the status of the sole most-anticipated film of the whole bunch. Hoping to catch The Lives of Therese at the next-earliest possible opportunity, but dying to catch The Woman Who Left just next week!

FIRST TRAILER FOR LAV DIAZ'S THE WOMAN WHO LEFT

It's one of my biggest disappointments that the 2016 London Film Festival lineup includes neither of Lav Diaz's two films this year: his Berlin Film Festival award-winning A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery and his Venice Film Festival competitor The Woman Who Left. Seriously, I'd trade you my Eugene Green, my Cristian Mungiu, my Bertrand Tavernier and my Maren Ade for just one of them! Here's the first trailer for the latter, The Woman Who Left, which also screens in the Toronto International Film Festival this month. Early reviews are excellent, and the trailer is predictably promising. The guy sure does a lot, and does very little wrong!

TRAILER FOR LAV DIAZ'S A LULLABY TO THE SORROWFUL MYSTERY

Given the rate at which he turns out features, it's remarkable that Lav Diaz's works are as long as they are - his latest, A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, clocks in at over eight hours, far from an anomaly in his canon. What's even more remarkable is the high quality of these works, and the consistency of this high quality. Here's hoping that this one - the entrancing, enigmatic trailer for which is above - is as good as we've come to expect from Diaz. Its world premiere is on this coming Thursday, the 18th of February, where it's competing for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival - the most prestigious festival placement to date for any of the Filipino director's films.