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Film critic and filmmaker Dodo Dayao noted in an interview that Lav Diaz is surprisingly prolific for someone who is doing films with runtimes longer than the conventional. “Phantosmia”’s release, after not stopping at any point before, during, and after the pandemic, proved just that. This latest work continues Diaz’s exploration of historical trauma and moral reckoning, using his distinctive narrative style to examine the inner lives of those shaped—and haunted—by violence.

Phantosmia is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

In the film we follow two strands of narratives that collide midway. First, the story of retired Master Sergeant Hilarion Zabala (Ronnie Lazaro) who, in his old age, is looking for a cure for the phantom rotten scent that has been plaguing him for decades. According to his psychiatrist, this is a manifestation of post-traumatic stress and suggested that a certain radical form of therapy...

The Philippines’ QCinema International Film Festival has locked its 12th edition lineup, with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud” — Japan’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards — set to close the November event. The festival opens with “Directors’ Factory Philippines,” an eight-filmmaker omnibus collaboration with Cannes Directors’ Fortnight that pairs Filipino directors with counterparts from across Asia.

The omnibus features four films: Eve Baswel and Malaysia’s Gogularaajan Rajendran direct “Walay Balay”; Maria Estela Paiso teams with India’s Ashok Vish for “Nightbirds”; Arvin Belarmino collaborates with Cambodia’s Lomorpich Rithy on “Silig”; and Don Eblahan partners with Singapore’s Tan Siyou for “Cold Cut.”

The Quezon City-based fest will unspool 77 titles, including 55 features and 22 shorts, across 11 sections under this year’s theme “The Gaze.”

In the main competition Asian Next Wave, eight features compete: Duong Dieu Linh’s Venice Critics’ Week grand prize winner “Don’t Cry Butterfly”; Nelicia Low’s “Pierce...

Thai sales agent Diversion has boarded Filipino drama Phantosmia by Golden Lion-winning director Lav Diaz ahead of its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival.

The four-hour, black-and-white drama explores the harrowing psychological journey of a retired military officer, who suffers from a recurring olfactory disorder, which affects sense of smell, possibly linked to past traumas. As he revisits the darkest episodes of his life in a remote penal colony, the film delves into themes of violence, memory, and the dark side of human condition.

Shot in Sampaloc, in the Quezon province of the Philippines, the film...

Lav Diaz’s “Phantosmia,” which has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the out of competition section, has debuted its trailer.

The film centers on Hilarion Zabala, whose mysterious olfactory problem has recurred. A counselor/psychiatrist suspects it to be a lingering case of phantosmia, a phantom smell, and possibly caused by trauma, a deep psychological fracture. One recommended radical process to cure the ailment was that Hilarion must go back and deal with the darkest currents of his past life in the military service. Reassigned in the very remote Pulo Penal Colony, he must also confront the horrific realities of his present situation.

In a statement, the director asks: “Do human beings have the right to kill other human beings? A big part of the story of ‘Phantosmia’ is about this discourse, and other questions about man’s existence.”

He adds: “One of the main protagonists...