The World of Movies: Norte, the End of History
Written by Rachael Crawley
The World of Movies is a series that explores global cinema, drawing on films from many countries, industries and eras. This week, three people in the Philippines deal with the aftermath of a terrible event.
Norte, the End of History.
May contain spoilers.
A brief content warning – this film contains a depiction of a murder, and later of a sexual assault.
So first of all – this movie is four hours long. It deals with a lot of heavy topics. Don’t schedule anything else that day. That said, though the movie is a commitment, it is completely worth it. One of the most well-regarded films from the Philippines, Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz, 2013) is a story of crime, guilt, and injustice. Thoughtful and deeply human, it never stops engaging the viewer.
We meet Joaquin and Eliza, who are struggling to provide for their family, and Fabian, a recent law school dropout who is given to intense political discussions. (They are played respectively by Archie Alemania, Angeli Bayani, and Sid Lucero, all excellent.) The movie gives us ample time to get to know them – the inciting incident does not even happen within the first hour. Instead, we see the characters interacting with friends and family, going about their daily routines, and – most of all – simply trying to get by.
The two stories are connected through a money lender, Magda, whose murder brings them crashing together. (For the sake of spoilers, I won’t go into specifics.) The brutal crime affects all three characters. Fabian is weighed down by immense guilt, eventually reaching the point of madness. Eliza holds her family together with a sort of resigned pragmatism. Joaquin puts all his effort into survival, and unexpectedly finds purpose. For the majority of the film, there is little action explicitly depicted – many of the plot’s major moments occur offscreen, so we are left to sort out the aftermath. The dialogue tends to veer away from drama as well, with the exception of some of Fabian’s discussions. These extraordinary circumstances are played out as surprisingly low-key. Even the ending, while depicting drastic events, plays out slowly and calmly.
Norte, the End of History.
The film has little to no score and relies heavily on in-universe sound. It can often be rather quiet, which adds to the understated feeling. It is also beautifully shot, in both urban and rural settings. One particular strength is Diaz’s ability to isolate a character within an image, which leads to some stunning shots. This is a movie that likes to explore its space – and as a result, its surroundings feel fully developed.
As for the runtime? Sure, the events of the film could have been played out in a shorter period – on paper, there’s no reason it needed to be four hours. It is a loose adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, which has been successfully adapted in much shorter form. At the same time, though the movie feels quite slow and contemplative, it passes quickly. I was frequently surprised when I paused the movie to see that half an hour had gone by, or even an hour. Even those extended, near-silent moments - with brooding characters and long, long takes - don’t really drag.
Norte, the End of History handles complex issues with elegance, particularly in its aesthetic choices. While the movie takes a long time to get where it is going, the time we spend with these characters is utterly compelling. For any film fan, no matter what their usual tastes, this is an essential.
Rachael Crawley holds a Master's Degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, and has worked with film in Canada and in Europe. She adores language and cinema, and how these subjects interact with each other.