The Halt

Oppression and madness holds sway over the Philippines ever since a huge volcanic eruption in 2034 laid all of South-east Asia in shadow.

A despotic president named Navarro considers himself God’s chosen one, sent to save the island nation from conspiracy and disease. His military forces and ever-present drones brutally strike down any resistance found in the terrorised populace. The difference between future dystopia and today’s actual situation in the Philippines is often subtle when award-winning festivale favourite Lav Diaz (Season of the Devil, GFF 2019, From What is Before, GFF 2015) slowly guides us into his cinematic universe, presenting a nightmarish, claustrophobic society characterised by mass surveillance.

• Freddy Olsson