What happens when an agency tasked with protecting the citizenry and ensuring that the duly constituted laws of the land are adhered to becomes the enforcer of human rights violations (in the case of the Philippines, the police becoming the Grim Reaper himself)?

The populist persona and demeanor of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte catapulted him to such popularity unheard of in Philippine politics that everything he does, even unconstitutional and unconscionable acts like the extra-judicial killings done by the police, has semblance of entitlement, attributed mostly to the masses’ imprimatur and approval. But his approval doesn’t just come from the ‘ignorant’ masses but also from the intellectuals, the artists, the educated.

The suffering of Lt. Hermes Papauran in the film is the suffering of the Filipino soul, the human soul. The very current shocking Ukraine invasion by Russia and the resultant brutality seems unheard of but it is just a magnification of the human malady that has been with us forever—how humanity has become so accepting to a form of psychosis in approving evil leadership, how humanity has become so helpless to a wall of petrified ignorance. Putin, Duterte, Assad, Trump… they’ve been with us forever, The Grim Reapers of the world.

Lav Diaz