Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors

Premio Brian Award, 2026 Venice Film Festival
Critics Award, 2026 Filmfest Hamburg
Official Selection, 2026 Busan International Film Festival
Official Selection, 2026 Tokyo International Film Festival

“Bari-bari apo… Tabi-tabi po, makikiraan po… Please excuse me, I am just passing through.” In Filipino folk culture, there is a belief that nature is sacred ground and home to powerful spirits. When entering these spaces, one must politely ask permission to enter or risk bringing bad fortune. 

But when an irreverent force with an insatiably gluttonous appetite for ownership begins to take over, who has the authority to grant that safety? Lav Diaz’s latest film explores this question against the backdrop of Las Islas Filipinas in the seventeenth century, during which the Spanish set up encomienda, a labor and tribute system of exploitation and reconstruction that forever altered the landscape—and soul—of Filipino land. 

When Spanish friar Padre Enciso (Bart Guingona) sets his sights on constructing a church, the tyrannical encomendero enlists his estranged son Dungwen to transport a shipment of stone slabs through the thick forest that surrounds their colonial town of Estacion Nueve. What lies ahead for Dungwen, his men—and separately, Padre Enciso—is a series of encounters with formidable entities that challenge the men to question what power they have, and whose power they can’t ignore. Dungwen and his men face an arduous journey through the forest amidst warnings of disturbing a mysterious presence named Bari-Bari. Padre Enciso must reckon with the presence of Babayeng Indimatandog (Isabel Sandoval), a beloved healer among the indigenous Malay community whose nurturing spiritual practices serve as a perfect foil to Enciso’s fearmongering style of evangelization. Moments that appear to be a triumph or conquest for the victor feel more like a concession—or permission—from the fallen. 

LET US THROUGH, DEAR ANCESTORS adds another installation to Diaz’s collection of films that explore origin stories of the Philippines and retell them through the lens of the Filipino psyche. While a period piece, it’s a story of the human condition: the push-pull of earthly desire and spiritual detachment, the dance of ego and humility, the tightrope act of bravado and fear.

– Nina Cristobal