EXCLUSIVE: Lav Diaz‘s Venice Film Festival title Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors (Makikiraan Po) has been boarded by Greek international sales firm Heretic.

The film, about Spain’s colonial subjugation of the Philippines, is one of the Filipino auteur’s shorter features running ‘only’ 2 hours 31 minutes.

The film, which is playing Out of Competition on the Lido, charts the brutality of Spanish friar Padre Enciso over the population in the 17th century. The synopsis reads: “Spain forcibly transformed the Philippines through sexual violence, exploitation, and religious conversion. Thousands of natives died building 17th-century churches, whose grand architecture stands as monuments to colonization’s brutality.”

Pic is produced by Bianca Balbuena (Epicmedia Productions Inc) and Montgomery Blencowe (C’est Lovi Productions), with Bradley Liew, Lovi Poe and Louis Wei as executive producers.

Festival regular Diaz was in Cannes last year with Magalhães (Magellan), starring Gael García Bernal, another meditative historical reimagining about colonial legacy and human endurance.

This is the latest collaboration between Filipino outfit Epicmedia and Diaz after movies including A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery (Berlinale Silver Bear winner), Berlin Competition entry Season Of The Devil, Venice drama When The Waves Are Gone and Locarno entry Essential Truths of The Lake.

Epicmedia is one of the country’s leading arthouse producers and is a regular at major festivals with credits including Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana, which played at Sundance and Berlin, Truong Minh Quy’s Viet and Nam and Directors Factory Philippines, which both launched at Cannes, Kenneth Dagatan’s In My Mother’s Skin, which played at Sundance and sold to Amazon, and Lorcan Finnegan’s Nocebo, the first Ireland-UK-Philippines coproduction with Eva Green and Mark Strong. That Thing Called Tadhana is one of the highest grossing independent films in Philippine’s box office history.

Ioanna Stais, Head of Sales & Acquisitions for Heretic, commented: “We feel incredibly fortunate to be working with Lav Diaz for the first time, a filmmaker whose singular vision and uncompromising body of work we have admired for many years. To be entrusted with bringing his new film to the international market, alongside the brilliant team at Epicmedia, is a real privilege for Heretic.” 

Bianca Balbuena of producer Epicmedia said: “We are extremely excited to work with Heretic for the first time, especially on a very special project with Lav Diaz. Their energy is so positive! We admire their auteur-driven slate and how they champion unconventional voices. We hope that this becomes a highly fruitful partnership.”