Lav Diaz Unveils New Lisbon-Set Drama at Venice Market While Festival Premieres His Latest Film

Filipino film-maker Lav Diaz has two films in motion at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival: one premiering on the Lido, and another being presented to buyers in the festival's gap-financing market.

Diaz's new feature Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors (Makikiraan Po) screens in the Venice Open — Out of Competition section, running 151 minutes in Tagalog and starring Bart Guingona, Ronnie Lazaro and Isabel, per the festival's official program. The film was announced as a Venice selection in July (Inquirer.net), and Greek sales company Heretic boarded international rights in August (Deadline).

At the same time, Diaz was at the Venice Gap-Financing Market — a forum where film-makers pitch projects to potential backers to close funding gaps — presenting An Entry Into the Sadness of a Portuguese Woman, a Lisbon-set drama now in post-production (Variety). The market ran September 4–6.

The film follows Lieutenant Ines Horta as she investigates a mystery alongside Sergeant Mariana Moura. Diaz writes and directs; the cast includes Monica Calle, Ana Vilela Da Costa and John Lloyd Cruz. Jean-Christophe Simon produces for Films Boutique, with co-producers Epic Media and Rosa Filmes. Support comes from ARTE, Bord Cadre and Sovereign Films.

Sadness of a Portuguese Woman is the third instalment of Diaz's Hermes Trilogy, a series that began with When the Waves Are Gone (2020) and continued with Essential Truths of the Lake (2023), both of which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. The spirit of Lieutenant Hermes Papauran, the trilogy's recurring figure, remains present in the new film, though the focus shifts to the Portuguese investigator Ines Horta, Diaz told Variety.

For Diaz, the Venice return carries its own resonance. He won the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion, with The Woman Who Left in 2016 — ten years before this Sadness announcement. The Hermes Trilogy has followed its own festival path through Locarno rather than Venice, but bringing both a finished film and a market project to the Lido places Diaz across two sides of the festival's machinery: the premiere and the marketplace.

The Venice Gap-Financing Market, held during the festival, exists to connect projects still raising money with producers, distributors and financiers. A film presented there is typically late in development or in post-production, seeking the final funds to reach screens.

International sales for Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors are handled by Heretic, an Athens-based company that has become a regular presence in festival-market deals for art-house titles. Sadness of a Portuguese Woman does not yet have an announced sales agent.

No release date has been set for either film.