Going in I hadn't a clue as to what the CTE stood for in the title! Come to find out it stands for CHRONIC TRAUMATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY a progressive degenerative disease resulting from repeated traumas to the head! Keep in mind Florentina Hubaldo in all actuality is not about a young girl per se for she represents the country and its citizenry itself that have taken one too many blows to the head over the past 300 years of suffering and desperation resulting from colonial rule, war, devastating political regimes as well as destructive acts of nature! Knowing this in advance adds a whole new layer to this tragic story of poverty, greed and inhumanity at its worst!

Now you may…

It sounds absurd to entertain the idea of rewatching a film that supposedly requires as much stamina as this, but I feel that when the day comes to take another punt at what very well be Lav Diaz's most 'complete' film, I'll find myself enjoying it even more.

He's essentially offering just another film about a truth many other filmmakers have already proven time and again: life is hard - but his stunning camerawork often elevates this concept to another level entirely, introducing light as a fixture to permeate the shadows rather than the other way around, just as the centerpiece sequences in this film utilize camera movement (a rare technique for a Diaz film) to highlight things that don't…

It almost feels as if Diaz is telling the story through sound but just like basically simple sound acts so peculiarly, so act the shadows, the camera, the people. What feels seemingly paradoxical for Diaz, the film is told through the action, through the movement - not only because he uses handheld camera but because actors aren't acting but we are simply observing their "squirm".

Once focused on human for long enough, her/his actions become something more, really the interpretation of their personality; the ending feels almost banal for a moment, we keep guessing whether it ends but ultimately Diaz keeps the rhythm up so far that it becomes our rhythm and we forget everything to see everything better through…

96/100

"I am Florentina Hubaldo.
My father is a monster."

Lav Diaz at his darkest and most harrowing is truly a frightening thing to witness. That may sound hyperbolic, considering that the same set of descriptors―bleak, dark, depressing―can be applied to almost his entire filmography, building upon the years of pain and anguish of his people. But Florentina Hubaldo, CTE would definitely stand out from the rest, with its uncompromising depiction of abuse-fuelled trauma as an allegory of the countless years of colonial exploitation suffered by the Filipino natives.

While the name Florentina Hubaldo refers to the protagonist, CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: a brain condition resulting from repeated blows to the head, leading to dementia, changes in behaviour…

Avoid this review if you want to go in blind

This is one of Diaz's weaker films, and definitely not the one to start out with in his filmography (I'd point to Melancholia or Norte). But if this is really one of his weaker efforts then that says a lot about his track record.

Florentina is essentially one allegory about the horrible abuse the Philippines has undergone as a nation spanning 6 hours of suffering and trauma. It's a very simple allegory, and it's partly the simplicity which works to the film's strength because of how much brute force Diaz drives behind it. It's focused and relentless.

But the simplicity is also to its detriment because it doesn't have as…

What is the scariest film you've ever seen? The most common trait would be to pick a supernatural horror film that haunts you long after the credits roll, but Diaz at his bleakest can turn most of these into laughing stocks and Florentina Hubaldo CTE is an emphatic corroboration of the above statement that can turn your dreams into nightmares. Agonizing reality is always much more terrifying and frightening than fictionalised horror and especially the way Florentina's miserable existence unfolds before your eyes makes it similar to walking with a pebble inside your shoe, with each step it reminds you of it's noxious impact that wears you out and worsen the wounds till you cripple.

"What is the essence of…

I gather, from glancing at a number of reviews here, that this film is intended (or can be taken, at least) as a sort of allegory about the Philippines, which makes sense given Lav Diaz has generally turned his attention to dramas of national self-definition, whether set in the urgent present (Norte) or staged as period dramas (Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery). If that's the case, he doesn't exactly have a rosy picture of his native country, though that much is pretty evident from any of his films; our title character (played by his frequent collaborator Hazel Orencio) is a woman who is beaten down by life. We learn soon enough that she's been beaten by her father, ineffectively protected…

It's impossible to understand or evaluate this film as an art object discrete from the experience of engaging with it. Its prescribed mode of engagement is suffering. There's so much brute force here that there's nowhere for the viewer to hide. You can get up and leave, but to engage with it at all, even with your eyes closed, is to open yourself up to emotional agony. Could it have conveyed all of its more discursive thematic content and evoked an overwhelming sense of misery in half the running time? Absolutely, and I probably would have liked it better qua film. But again, it's not just a film, it's an invitation to set aside six hours for a sort of…

96/100

"I am Florentina Hubaldo.
My father is a monster."

Lav Diaz at his darkest and most harrowing is truly a frightening thing to witness. That may sound hyperbolic, considering that the same set of descriptors―bleak, dark, depressing―can be applied to almost his entire filmography, building upon the years of pain and anguish of his people. But Florentina Hubaldo, CTE would definitely stand out from the rest, with its uncompromising depiction of abuse-fuelled trauma as an allegory of the countless years of colonial exploitation suffered by the Filipino natives.

While the name Florentina Hubaldo refers to the protagonist, CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: a brain condition resulting from repeated blows to the head, leading to dementia, changes in behaviour…