Norte, the End of History

Plot

The lives of three people take a turn when one of them commits a crime.

Joaquin (Archie Alemania) is failing miserably at providing for his family. When his money lender gets murdered, the crime is pinned on him. Misery and solitude transform him in prison.

Left to fend for the family, his wife Eliza (Angeli Bayani) pours all of her strength to battling with despair and eking out a living for their children.

The real perpetrator, Fabian (Sid Lucero), roams free. His disillusionment with his country—its history of revolutions marred by betrayal and crimes unpunished—drives him to the edge of sanity.

Cast

Critical reception

Norte, the End of History received overwhelming critical acclaim, with a "fresh" score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 8 out of 10. The critical consensus states "Its four-hour length is undeniably imposing, but Norte, the End of History rewards patient viewers with an absorbing, visually expansive viewing experience." The film has a score of 81 on Metacritic based on 10 reviews, signifying "universal acclaim".

A.O. Scott of New York Times writes, "More than four hours long, filmed in expansive takes with almost no close-ups and very few camera movements, Lav Diaz's "Norte, the End of History" is a tour de force of slow cinema. It is the work of a director as fascinated by decency as by ugliness, and able to present the chaos of life in a series of pictures that are at once luminously clear and endlessly mysterious."

Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter gave an underwhelming review by saying, "There's little in the way of genuine depth, complexity or nuance here, Diaz instead seeks to convey the illusion of profundity by having various characters throw around weighty social and philosophical verbiage in thuddingly sophomoric fashion."

At the end of 2013, British magazine Sight & Sound listed Norte as one of the Top 10 films of 2013, tying for the ninth spot with the French film Stranger by the Lake. The film also was chosen by the International Cinephile Society Awards 2014 as one of the Best Films not released in 2013. Norte was also ranked at #15 at Film Comment's Top 20 Best Films of 2014.