Arquivo

"The poet Benjamin Agusan returns from years in Russia to his home village of Padang, which has been devastated by a typhoon. He finds his best friend and fellow poet Teodoro and his old love, the painter Catalina. They share poems and memories among the ruins and ongoing dangers, including a government man that is hunting Benjamin. Throughout, interviews take place between a film crew and typhoon survivors who talk about continuing life. The Philippines are struck by 25 to 28 typhoons each year. The Super Typhoon Durian hit the Bicol region in November 2006, which prompted Diaz to film many destroyed places where he had previously shot. In an act of poetic justice, the Venice Film Festival (whose Orizzonti section awarded the film a Special Mention prize) categorized the film as a documentary. Though several of its people are actors speaking scripted dialogue, this beautiful film records a very real, and even hopeful, ongoing process of survival. "