Venice Orizzonti adds Lav Diaz's Century of Birthing

Philippine director Lav Diaz’s new film Century Of Birthing (Sigo Ng Pagluluwal) [pictured] has been added to the Orizzonti (Horizons) line up for the Venice Film festival, organisers announced Thursday.

Diaz has been twice in Orizzonti, winning the section’s top prize in 2008 with Melancholia after taking an Orizzonti special mention in 2007 with Death In The Land Of Encantos. Diaz was on the Orizzonti jury in 2010.

Century Of Birthing is a meditation on the various roles of the artist and tells two seemingly unrelated tales. On one hand, that of a filmmaker at work on his latest project and that of a Christian cult leader in a rural setting on the other.

Organisers have also announced two closing films for the section.

The Annunciation by Finnish visual artist and director Eija-Liisa Ahtila, who this year is also a member of the Venice competition jury, is an installation of three projected images and films using Christian iconography, which is re-enacted through moving images.

Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus will present Monkey Sandwich, a feature length project and a “tangle” of various stories.

The Biennale said the two closing works represent the fusion of different forms of artistic expression, which is in line with their opening up the section to include non-narrative and multi format visual art works.

The Venice Film Festival’s 68^th edition kicks off Aug 31 and runs through Sept 10.