''From What Is Before'' () is a 2014 Filipino

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by

Lav Diaz Lavrente Indico Diaz (born December 30, 1958) is a Filipino independent filmmaker and former film critic. He is frequently known as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement, and has made several of the longest narrative films on reco ...

. The film follows a remote town in the Philippines during the 1970s under the

Marcos dictatorship At 7:15 p.m. on September 23, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos announced on television that he had placed the Philippines under martial law, stating he had done so in response to the "communist threat" posed by the newly founded Communist Party ...

. The film had its world premiere in the Philippines on July 3, 2014, and competed at the 2014

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

where it won the main prize, the

Golden Leopard The Golden Leopard () is the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, an international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Directors in the process of getting an international reputation are allowed to b ...

. The film also had its North American premiere at the

2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin (director), David Dobkin's film ''The Judge (2014 film), The Judg ...

, under the Wavelengths section. In addition, the film had its Philippine screening held for free on September 21, 2014. The film had its U.S. premiere, as part of the World Cinema section, at the 2014 AFI Fest. The film won Best Picture at the Gawad Urian.

Plot

The Philippines, 1972. Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad and houses are burned.

Ferdinand E. Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the country under ...

announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law. Everything became a mess when the Armed Forces of the Philippines decided to camp in the barrio. Or was it already messed up before?

Cast

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, a review aggregator gives the film an approval rating of 89% based on 9 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 7/10.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * 2014 films Philippine drama films Philippine avant-garde and experimental films Golden Leopard winners Films directed by Lav Diaz Films set in 1972 Films set in the Philippines Films shot in the Philippines {{2010s-Philippines-film-stub