06/08/2023 - The latest feature film by the brilliant Filipino director Lav Diaz depicts the torments of a lieutenant obsessed with a mysterious, unsolved case

By way of Essential Truths of the Lake [+see also:
trailer
film profile], screening within the International Competition of the Locarno Film Festival (where he won the Golden Leopard for From What Is Before in 2014), Filipino director Lav Diaz once again obliges us to approach film-viewing from a different and more introspective angle, to savour every shot, no matter how bitter, as if an exquisite amuse-bouche. Ever-interested in the open wounds of his country, which is still suffering from the pain inflicted by former President Rodrigo Duterte, Essential Truths of the Lake looks to understand what it is that drives human beings, and especially police lieutenants, to seek out the truth. Does it still make sense for a person to speak of truth and justice when they belong to an institution corrupted by a despotic and bloody-thirsty leader?

“We follow orders, not laws”, the film’s protagonist Lieutenant Hermes Papauran (played by John Lloyd Cruz) almost whispers to his boss, a former “classmate” as they love to call themselves, with whom he shares the nigh-on utopian desire to do his job motivated solely by justice. It’s a bitter but terribly realistic observation which acts as a driving force for a far-reaching search for meaning. What can a “good” police officer, or even a “good” person do in the face of widespread corruption? Is it still possible to not be sucked into the violence which seems to destroy everything, tornado-style?

The research embarked upon by Hermes Papauran, who, as many believe, is probably the best investigator in the Philippines, is based around the mysterious murder fifteen years earlier of Esmeralda Stuart (the intriguing Shaina Magdayao), a model and performer whom no-one seems to have really known. The place where the murder took place, and which serves as a backdrop to the film, is dominated by an impenetrable and unyieldingly silent lake, surrounded by a volcanic landscape which is constantly under threat from earthquakes sounding like muffled cries. Nobody believes the murder, known as the Philippine Eagle Case, will ever be solved, but Lieutenant Papauran desperately clings onto it, as if his own life depended on it, as if Esmeralda Stuart were the only one who could give his life meaning again.

Investigating the life of the model and performer who sometimes resembles an intriguing Laura Palmer, the film’s protagonist enters into symbiosis with the Philippine eagle, an endangered bird which is exalted by Esmeralda herself, who did everything she could to protect it towards the end of her life. Just like her, dressed in the same feathered costume she wore during her mysterious performances, Hermes Papauran seems to turn into the eagle, captivated by a kind of freedom which he’s never had the chance to enjoy. The further the film advances, the more the police investigation seems to give way to dreams, or rather to the protagonist’s hallucinations and delusions. Investigating from the very heart of the Philippines, both protected and suffocated by the half-light of the forest in the recesses of the margins which are rife with all kinds of “picaros”, Hermes shines a light on hidden realities, contradictions and hopes which the authorities would rather silence. The more the protagonist distances himself from the city and from his reality, the more his world seems to abound in nuances and cruel poetry, but also healthy, cathartic improvisation. For what if this were actually the truth?

Ever interested in the potential of film, in its capacity to depict “other” realities, Lav Diaz plays deftly with temporality, forcing us to focus on details and characters which are all too often forgotten. In his hands, unmindful of the rules inherent to the film market, violence is transformed into poetry.

Essential Truths of the Lake is produced by Epicmedia Productions (Philippines), Films Boutique (France/Germany) - who are also managing international sales - and Rosa Filmes (Portugal), in co-production with Tier Pictures (Singapore), Volos Films Italia, Bord Cadre films (Switzerland) and Sovereign Films (UK).

(Translated from Italian)