Batang West Side – Cinema Galeries

Batang West Side

Directed byLav Diaz
  • SUBTITLES EN
  • 2001
  • Duration 315
  • Prices 9.00 €, 7.00 €, 6.50 €, 6.00 €
  • Moderator ticket Article 27, Arsène 50
  • Abonnement Carte 5 places, UGC Unlimited

Introducing

“A curiously oblique film that builds almost imperceptibly, Lav Diaz’s five-hour “Batang West Side” — at once deadly serious and howlingly absurd — is a masterpiece.” – Variety

Synopsis

A Filipino boy is shot dead in the street under strange circumstances. A policeman with Filipino roots, who is failing to assimilate in a foreign country, takes the case. The investigation leads him deep into the pain-ridden world of the Filipino diaspora in the United States—a world of crime, split identities, and the deep trauma left by years of colonialism and the country’s bloody history.

Introducing

“A curiously oblique film that builds almost imperceptibly, Lav Diaz’s five-hour “Batang West Side” — at once deadly serious and howlingly absurd — is a masterpiece.” – Variety

Synopsis

A Filipino boy is shot dead in the street under strange circumstances. A policeman with Filipino roots, who is failing to assimilate in a foreign country, takes the case. The investigation leads him deep into the pain-ridden world of the Filipino diaspora in the United States—a world of crime, split identities, and the deep trauma left by years of colonialism and the country’s bloody history.

With its elaborately integrated flashback structure and ambiguously motivated protagonist, this classically paced, five-plus-hour procedural is at once more akin to the serialized television which was then taking hold in American home entertainment than the durational cinema which would soon make Diaz’s name, as well as a spiritual and political predecessor to the director’s recent, highly acclaimed Norte, the End of History.
J.CRONK. The L Magazine