At nearly four hours long, Diaz’s film — nominally inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s 1872 short story “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” — plays with the theme of moral accountability within a narrative colored by kidnappings, transgenderism and poverty.
This is the first time the Philippines won in the Venice Film Festival, considered one of most prestigious in the world like Cannes and Berlin.
Variety film critic Guy Lodge, in a review, said: “The latest supersized opus from Filipino maximalist Lav Diaz is a powerful and, by his standards, refreshingly contained moral study.”
The Lav Diaz film also marks the movie comeback of former ABS-CBN president and now chief content officer Santos-Concio, who also earned positive reviews from critics for her role in the film.
Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter praised Santos for her “majestic” and “sturdy” performance. Variety’s Lodge tweeted “Woman Who Left star Charo Santos is the real Oscar frontrunner.”
The movie also stars John Lloyd Cruz.
‘La La Land’
Best actor went to Argentina’s Oscar Martinez for his portrayal of a cynical Nobel Prize-winning author who returns to his village for the first time in 40 years in the comedy on art and fame, “The Distinguished Citizen.”
US actress Emma Stone received the best actress prize for her depiction of a struggling thespian who falls head over heels in love with a jazz pianist — played by Ryan Gosling — in US musical “La La Land.”
“I wish I could be there to make sure it’s not an elaborate prank,” quipped Stone in a video message, saying she could “think of no better place in the world than Venice to premier ‘La La Land,’ we had a wonderful time.”
Fashionista-turned-director Tom Ford was awarded the Silver Lion grand jury prize for “Nocturnal Animals,” a romantic thriller about former lovers starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal, with a violent revenge tale told as a story within a story.
An emotional Ford addressed the audience in Italian, saying he had spent “some of my best years in Italy” and it was his “biggest dream to return to Venice” after premiering his first film here, “A Single Man,” in 2009.
Aliens and cannibals
The Silver Lion for best director was divided this year between Mexico’s Amat Escalante for “The Untamed,” about the sex life of a tentacled extraterrestrial creature, and Russia’s Andrei Konchalovsky for Holocaust drama “Paradise.”
“Jackie,” a bio-drama which stars Natalie Portman as the grieving widow of US President John F. Kennedy, meanwhile took best screenplay, with Chilean director Pablo Larrain saying the triumph was Portman’s, calling her “the only woman who could have played this role.”
Ana Lily Amirpour — dubbed “the new Tarantino” by fans — scooped the special jury prize for her second film “Bad Batch,” a cannibal love story with Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves about a young girl who ends up on the menu in a futuristic United States.
But there was no recognition for Terrence Malick’s “Voyage of Time,” which wowed Venice audiences with its portrayal of the life and death of the universe through stunning special effects and real-life images taken from earth’s most sophisticated satellites.