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“Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon ”

(From What is Before)

2014

Synopsis:

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.

Military operations are becoming common. Brutal militias rule the countryside. Ferdinand E.

Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law.

Greater cinema fulfills one of its promises—that of reclaiming the Malay Philippines’

provenance. Banished traditions/practices of the pre-Hispanic and pre-Islamic periods are

resurrected and immortalized.

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Director's statement:

The title of the film is from the Latin phrase “a priori”, used in Western philosophy as knowledge

independent of all particular experiences, an argument/justification on the essentiality of truth

that is easily gleaned even without empirical evidence.

In 1972, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed Martial Law plunging the entire Philippines

into its darkest period. The epoch practically obscured everything that is essentially Filipino

then. Marcos’ political methodology was clinical and brutal.

The story of the film revolves around the lives of poor villagers in one of the remotest regions of

the Philippines before Martial Law was declared. Loosely based on real events and characters,

the film examines how an individual and collective psyche responds to extreme and mysterious

changes in social and physical environment.

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STILLS

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CAST

Perry Dizon Sito

Roeder Camañag Tony

Hazel Orencio Itang

Angelina Kanapi Heding

Karenina Haniel Joselina

Joel Saracho Father Guido

Ching Valdes-Aran Babu

Maria Victoria Beltran Bai Rahmah

Ian Lomongo Lt. Perdido

Reynan Abcede Hakob

Noel Sto. Domingo Horacio

Evelyn Vargas Miss Acevedo

Teng Mangansakan Principal

Kristine Kintana Ramon

Dea Chua Tinang

Kristian Chua Narsing

Kaninah Sabine Chua Kondring

Kyrie Usha Chua Junjun

Paul Jake Paule Magno

Richard Bolisay Father’s assistant

Kim Perez Maria

Liryc Paolo Dela Cruz Mr. Hashmi

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Justine Tabara Dindo

Kyla Domingo Aida

Jun Catenza Mariano

Abraham Abdullah Maguindanaoan shaman

CREW

Director, Producer, Writer, Editor, Director of Photography Lav Diaz

Assistant Director Hazel Orencio

Production Manager Liryc Paolo Dela Cruz

Asst. Production Manager/Production Assistant Kyla Domingo

Camera Department Hazel Orencio

Che Villanueva

Lights Crew Hazel Orencio

Che Villanueva

Sound Mark Locsin

Additional Sound Sultan Diaz

Sound Design Lav Diaz

Production Designer Perry Dizon

Art Director Kim Perez

Liryc Paolo Dela Cruz

Wardrobe Lucky Jay De Guzman/Kim Perez

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REVIEW

Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon (From What is Before), Lav Diaz’s follow-up to his highly

acclaimed Norte: Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (Norte: The End of History), opens with views of

rolling hills and untouched landscapes.

From a forest of bananas, a little boy (Reynan Abcede), carrying a large bunch of bananas,

walks towards the field. A voice, presumably of the invisible storyteller, breaks the peace

established by the stretched minutes of Diaz’s monochrome vistas, saying that everything is but

based on memory.

Memory, like history, is a malleable commodity in Diaz’s films. The memory spoken by the

invisible storyteller is not the same memory that we commonly understand. In fact, the invisible

storyteller may not even be the little boy, or Diaz himself, but of the film’s most prominent

character, the town. Diaz has crafted a community, much like the Philippines, that aches and

bleeds because of the acts and decisions of the people that comprise it.

Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon works best as an allegory. The events that happen in the small

town, although specified as though they have happened a couple of years prior to the events of

the martial law era, mirror the vast history of the Philippines as a nation. From the pertinent

connection of the people with the land to that connection’s slow but sure dissipation because of

the subtle entry of religion and politics, the town’s harrowing experiences evoke a certain sense

of familiarity that is discomforting.

Diaz, however, does not settle for just symbolisms and representations. The stories of the

town’s dwellers are by themselves worthy of their own multi-hour features. The little boy from

the film’s opening, believing all his life that his parents are lepers in a colony in Palawan, has

been saving money to search for them. Sito (Perry Dizon), the boy’s ward and concocter of the

grand lie, acts as the film’s central figure, the only person to completely witness the village’s

transformation.

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Suffering and deceit

Itang (Hazel Orencio) and Joselina, her sister who suffers from cerebral palsy and has the

power to heal some of the villagers’ many ailments, provide the film its moral dilemma. Through

the rumors spread by Heding (Mailes Kanapi), the outsider who has suddenly started to sell

various knick-knacks to the villagers, the sisters have become the center of suspicion as to why

the town has been suffering. Tony (Roeder Camanag), the town’s winemaker, surreptitiously

visits Joselina to ease his carnal longings.

The town, although far from perfect especially with its many tales of suffering and deceit,

reflects the very same dilemma that plagues the Philippines. Diaz, by weaving together those

tales into a single epic, has summarized a country’s painful history not with facts and dates but

with impressions and emotions. Mula Sa Kung Saan Ang Noon is sustained by evocative

tableaus of human beings in various degrees of personal, spiritual and political strife.

This country is built on the sins of its citizens, Diaz seems to be proclaiming with Mula Sa Kung

Saan Ang Noon. Its history is carved from the lies, the duplicity, the greed, and the violence that

have been constant tools for survival. Projected away from the film’s narrative and into what the

country has actually experienced, it is the Philippines’ history of repeated exploitation that has

allowed for certain evils to triumph. Marcos, and everything that has happened thereafter, are

but products of our own inhumanity and complacency.

Mula sa Kung Saan Ang Noon, which deservedly won the grand prize in the ongoing World

Premieres Film Festival by the Film Development Council of the Philippines,is five and a half

hours long. It is short compared to Diaz’s other eight to eleven hour masterpieces. Let this not

daunt you. What Diaz has done is to distill centuries of the country’s sorrows and agonies into a

fascinatingly fractured narrative that will never ever leave you. This is a memory that is worth

making your own.

-Oggs Cruz (via http://www.rappler.com/entertainment/movies/62491-mula-sa-kung-ano-ang-

noon-movie-review-lav-diaz)

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WRITE-UPS

Filipino film on lost rituals takes World Festival prize

By Marinel Cruz (July 7, 2014)

MANILA, Philippines–A five-hour drama set on the brink of martial law, the Philippines’

sole entry to the 2014 World Premieres Film Festival (WPFF), bagged the Grand

Festival Prize at the awards ceremony on Wednesday night at the Centerstage theater

of SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

Lav Diaz’s “From What Is Before,” the winning piece, is a recollection of the acclaimed

indie filmmaker’s high school years in Sultan Kudarat before martial law.

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“According to Lav, the movie shows three Maguindanaoan rituals ‘erased’ after martial

law,” said cast member Kristine Kintana in an earlier interview.

The film, which almost failed to make it to the festival because of technical problems,

likewise won the Best Ensemble Production award.

Kintana said in a press conference on Sunday that the hard drive containing all the files

from the start of Diaz’s filming in December 2013 got “corrupted.” While Diaz had kept a

backup, Kintana said not all files were restored. The director failed to make it to the

festival’s opening ceremony on Monday because he was still busy with last-minute

editing work.

The WPFF, which will run until July 8, is organized by the Film Development Council of

the Philippines (FDCP).

FDCP chair Briccio Santos was pleased that a compatriot won the award. “Lav rightfully

deserves this. I hope [his victory] will entice other Filipino filmmakers to create more

movies and explore new narratives,” he said.

The Ecuadorean drama, “Open Wound,” a true-to-life story based on the territorial

conflict between Ecuador and Peru in the 1940s, bagged the Grand Jury Prize. The

Alfredo Leon Leon film also brought home the Technical Grand Prize and the Best

Performance by an Actor award for Rene Pastor.

Not one but 3 prizes

Iranian thespian Roya Teymourian won Best Performance by an Actress honors for her

work in Reza Azamian’s “Romantic Nostalgia.” The Best Artistic Contribution

(Cinematography) award was handed to the Spanish film “Crustaceans” by Vicente

Perez Herrero.

Other films that competed under the International World Premieres category were: “The

Sharks of Copacabana” (Rosario Boyer, Brazil); “Autopsy of Love” (Arturo Prins, Spain);

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“New York Shadows” (Juan Pinzas, Spain), and “Our Hodja” (F. Serkan Acar and

Yilmaz Okumus, Turkey).

“I didn’t expect to win even one prize but I got three,” said Leon shortly after the awards

ceremony. “I’m the youngest of the eight competing filmmakers, and while they have

been making films for a while, this is only my first. I’m really happy for the opportunity to

show the film so far from home.”

The 81-minute Spanish documentary “Coast of Death” was declared winner of the Cine

Verde Prize for Best Environmental Feature. The film by Lois Patino tells of the

historical region of Costa de Morte, its people and its mysterious landscape.

Composing the festival jury were Benjamin Illos, member of the Cannes Film Festival’s

Quinzaine des Realisateurs selection committee; Roger Garcia, executive director of

the Hong Kong International Film Festival; and John Badalu, a founding member of the

Indonesia Film Festival.

Reputable jurors

“We selected jurors who are very reputable,” Santos said. “They have been invited to

other international festivals and are very prolific and proficient in their own right. We

made sure to select the right ones also to keep the integrity of the winners.”

Santos said the WPFF would be an annual event. Some 40 films from 27 countries

which participated in the festival will be screened in SM Cinemas in Metro Manila until

July 8.

Ecuadorian director Leon said he hoped more Filipino audiences would get to see his

work.

“It’s important for festivals to build an audience. You have to let the common people

know that [through the WPFF], they are given a unique opportunity to watch films from

different parts of the world,” Leon said. “Filipinos should come to the festival every year

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because it should be a great experience for them. I wish this festival would last a very

long time, that in the years to come it would build a bigger audience.”

“Open Wound” is Best Actor Pastor’s first full-length feature, said Leon. “He auditioned

for the role and I thought he did a great job. I liked that he’s very natural. It’s like he is

not acting at all. Through his eyes, without speaking, he is able to communicate a lot of

things. He is going to be very happy to know that he won an award here.”

Leon described his film as “very sincere.”

“This is actually not about war but a coming-of-age story of a young soldier,” he said. “I

think everyone, no matter where you are in the world, can relate to that—to the inner

struggles of growing up. We’ve all had to face difficulties in different times in our lives.

This shows that we’ve all had a hard time finding out who we are and why we’re here.”

Source: http://entertainment.inquirer.net/146426/filipino-film-on-lost-rituals-takes-world-

festival-prize#ixzz36tnHWMcb

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The World Premieres Film Festival Bringing the world to the Philippines

By Philip Cu-Unjieng (July 7, 2014)

MANILA, Philippines - Cannes, Venice, Berlin. It’s interesting to note how cities stage

film festivals that become annual beacons for cultural enlightenment, business dealings

and tourism. Here in Asia, Hong Kong, and more recently, Singapore and Pusan, have

also begun the tradition of staging such festivals. And there is some irony in the fact that

our very own Manila enjoys having on historical record one of the region’s earliest

commercial film exhibitions (1898); and yet, we have not been able to sustain the

staging of an annual landmark film festival. Hopefully, all that changes with this year’s

World Premieres Film Festival Philippines 2014. Organized by the Film Development

Council of the Philippines (FDCP), in partnership with SM Cinemas, the ongoing festival

(at SM Megamall, Mall of Asia, North EDSA, Manila and Sta. Mesa) is a virtual

showcase of nascent possibility, with films from all over the world vying for our

consideration. Given the enthusiastic response of the film directors involved in the main

competition to the brand of Filipino hospitality they’ve been enjoying, it’s very likely that

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they’ll be spreading the word of just how precious a festival this can be — auguring well

for the future of this festival!

June 29 saw the opening ceremonies of the festival held at the Esplanade, Mall of Asia;

and it was a potent mix of the artists from all over the world, Manila society and

personalities from the local film industry. Last Monday, the foreign film directors were

invited to a special dinner organized by Hans Sy of SM Cinema, who along with FDCP

chairman Briccio Santos, were the perfect hosts, regaling the guests with anecdotes

about the Philippines, and treating them to a small showcase of folk dancing. I know the

Spanish directors were especially enamored by how some dances and musical

instruments paid homage to our Spanish colonial heritage. On July 2, we had the

awards night. With an international jury composed of Benjamin Illos, who has served on

the Cannes Fortnight Selection Committee; Roger Garcia, executive director of the

Hong Kong International Film Festival; and John Badalu, a founding member of the film

festival in Indonesia, the World Premieres Film Festival had several prizes up for grabs.

Best Picture would garner the Grand Festival Prize, and there were Grand Jury Prizes

and Special Jury Prizes for Best Performance by an Actor, by an Actress, for Artistic

Contribution, for Ensemble Performance and a Technical Grand Prize. These were for

the eight films vying in the main competition.

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People watching one’s work is true triumph

By Marinel Cruz (July 8, 2014)

Award-winning indie filmmaker Lav Diaz, whose film “From What Is Before” won the

Grand Festival Prize at the 2014 World Premieres Film Festival (WPFF, ongoing till July

8), exhorts industry leaders to work on bringing the arts to the common people.

“We should reach out to the masa. Ignorance is a major issue. We have to address this

for our culture to grow and develop,” Diaz told the Inquirer, a day after the awards were

handed out in a ceremony at the SM Mall of Asia’s Centerstage theater.

“Let us promote our own films. We could redirect promotional funds to give free tickets

to barangays and hire shuttle buses to bring them to the cinemas,” Diaz added.

His five-hour drama almost didn’t make it to the competition because of technical

problems. In the end, its cast also won Best Ensemble Performance. Diaz was a no-

show, but actors Hazel Orencio, Liryc Paulo de la Cruz, Kim Perez and Perry Dizon

attended the hour-long ceremony.

Competing filmmakers

Diaz competed with seven other filmmakers: Rosario Boyer from Brazil, who directed

“The Sharks of Copacabana”; Alfredo León León from Ecuador, “Mono Con Gallinas”;

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Reza Azamian from Iran, “Romantic Nostalgia”; F. Serkan Acar and Yilmaz Okumus

from Turkey, “Our Hodja”; and, from Spain, Arturo Prins, “Autopsy of Love”; Vicente

Perez Herrero, “Crustaceans”; and Juan Pinzas, “New York Shadows.”

“From What Is Before” is set in 1972, at the start of martial law. It examines what Diaz

calls the country’s “darkest period.”

His WPFF victory came on the heels of his Gawad Urian Best Picture win for another

film “Norte, the End of History,” from the local critics’ group.

Like most independent filmmakers, Diaz said he did not create the film to aim for

winning an award. “What’s more important is for the film to be seen by as many people

as possible,” he stressed. “An award is but an affirmation of one’s work.”

“Mono Con Gallinas,” a true-life story based on the territorial conflict between Ecuador

and Peru in the 1940s, bagged the Grand Jury Prize. It also won the Technical

Excellence award and Best Performance by an Actor honor for lead Rene Pastor.

Other awards handed out were Best Artistic Contribution (Cinematography) for

“Crustaceans” and Best Performance by an Actress for Iranian Roya Teymourian for her

work in “Romantic Nostalgia.” The 81-minute Spanish documentary “Coast of Death”

was declared winner of the Cine Verde Prize for Best Environmental Feature.

The WPFF is organized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines. Council

chair Briccio Santos said it will henceforth be an annual event. Issa Litton was master of

ceremonies on Wednesday night. Some 40 films are being screened at SM cinemas in

Metro Manila until Tuesday.

Source: http://entertainment.inquirer.net/146550/people-watching-ones-work-is-true-

triumph#ixzz36to8PXlX