Norte, the End of History

Lav Diaz’s epic drama follows the contrasting stories of two men, a law school dropout who descends into criminality and the humble family man wrongly accused of his crimes.

Lav Diaz’s Filipino reimagining of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment was the critical sensation of Cannes 2013 and earned a 9th place slot on Sight and Sound’s 2013 Top Ten simply as a result of its festival appearances. This epic drama follows the contrasting stories of two men, a law school dropout who degenerates into psychopathy and the humble family man who is wrongly accused of his crimes.

Lav Diaz is renowned for his marathon works of ‘slow cinema’ and at four hours, Norte is the briefest of the director’s films to date. Grand in scale yet highly focused in its detailed examination of motive, morality and the honest minutiae of family life, Norte is a masterpiece of modern art cinema.