From What Is Before

“Memories of cataclysm.”

In 1972, a remote Philippine barrio hears wails from the forest, finds cows hacked to death, and watches a house burn. Sito (Perry Dizon) and his neighbor Tony (Roeder Camañag) live among the villagers who try to read these signs, while Ferdinand Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 and places the whole country under martial law. Lav Diaz lets the villagers sit with each other in the long evenings, bound by what none of them can explain.