EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY (2004, Lav Diaz, A++++++++++)

I was stabbed in the heart by the 20-minute dying scene in EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY (2004, Lav Diaz, A++++++++++), and is still bleeding inside.

I think the scene is very powerful, though we know that the character would keep on struggling like that for a very long time. This is just one of many examples that show that the real power of Diaz's films is not about "storytelling", or just telling what happens, but may be about how it affects our feelings, emotions, consciousness, subconsciousness, unconsciousness, how we perceive the world/universe, how we experience our lives, how we perceive/experience time, how we can feel/share the pain of others, how we can sympathize/understand the oppressed, and how/why we must sacrifice our lives for something. If this scene ends in one minute, the story can still be told completely, but it wouldn't have affected me like this. The duration of this scene is one of the reasons why I feel as if the scene has stabbed me in the heart and leaves a permanently open wound in it.

(I got some of the ideas above from Filmsick.)