On Endings

Black-and-white shots of an abandoned city and human dwellings permeated by melancholy, in which time drags on and gives rise to space for inner reflection and contemplation. It is the filmmaker’s intimate statement from isolation, in which he reads letters from a mother longing for her son, whom she has not seen for four years. Words full of tenderness, pain, and religious conviction mix memories of the past with faith in future moments together. In the texts, uttered in a quiet voice, light and darkness contrast, as they do in the captivating shots full of chiaroscuro. Without a storyline, dialogue, or tension, the film offers itself to quiet contemplation by its viewers.

 

“[...] films are memories; cinema is memory. I think cinema is there to record our existence, the unknown, and the memory of the world. ” L. Paolo Dela Cruz

 

 

Filipino director, screenwriter and producer Liryc Paolo Dela Cruz (1992) is one of the most prominent representatives of the slow cinema movement. The primary theme of his non-narrative films is his origins and personal history. Past visitors to the Ji.hlava IDFF could see his film Notes from Unknown Maladies (2018).