Lav Diaz于2008年完成的新片，获得2008年第65届威尼斯电影节地平线单元最佳影片大奖。
本片可能是Lav Diaz最复杂的影片。长达7个半小时的片长对于熟悉Lav Diaz的人来说已是司空见惯。影片大致由三个部分和尾声组成：第一部分发生在Sagada村，男主角Julian和女主角Alberta以及他们的朋友Rina分别以不同的人格扮演来试图排解心中失去亲人的苦闷；第二部分是在马尼拉，此时Rina已因忧郁自杀身亡，Julian和Alberta因之前在Sagada村的人格扮演疗法发生争执，两人各执己见，但均无法找出真正治疗忧郁症的方法；第三部分是倒叙十年前发生在Mindoro岛上的左翼激进分子和军方的抵抗斗争，Alberta的丈夫Renato是激进组织的一员，在战友纷纷牺牲的情况下，Renato内心产生了激烈的斗争，认为自己的悲伤永无平息之日，后遭军方杀害。
除了标志性的黑白固定机位长镜头，Lav Diaz在这次的新片里安排了很多对话，目的就是要表达自己的思想，此外也触及了对菲律宾政治以及菲律宾电影史的探讨，很多思想甚至令人费解。影片情节线索复杂，叙事方式和视角不断切换，时空看似明朗但并不容易理清，加之时而伴有抒情性段落的插入，在丰富影片表意层次的同时也更增加了理解的难度。影片中每个人的故事都是通过他人的讲述引出的，而其本人的讲述却难辨真假，使人联想起福克纳的小说《押沙龙！押沙龙！》。

An engkanto, or encanto, is an often-malign spirit dwelling in the Filipino countryside, although in Death in the Land of Encantos, some of them have migrated to eastern Europe as exiles. Their human counterpart is the film’s protagonist, Benjamin (“Hamin”) Agusan, a poet who returns from years in Russia to search for the body of his girlfriend in the wake of a catastrophic typhoon and landslides. These 2006 disasters devastated the Bicol region where Diaz’s films have been set since Evolution of a Filipino Family, killing thousands. This film, which inaugurated Diaz’s “trauma trilogy,” includes documentary footage in an attempt to record the suffering of the local inhabitants.
A Filipino poet named Benjamin Agusan (Roeder Camanag) is the hapless native who returns to his hometown Padang to witness the aftermat h of the super typhoon. For the past seven years, Benjamin had been living in an old town called Kaluga in Russia. With his grant and residency, he taught and conducted workshops in a university. The poet published two books of sadness and longing in the process. In Russia, Benjamin was able to shoot video collages, fell in love with a Slavic beauty, buried a son, and almost went mad. He came back to bury his dead-father, mother, sister and a lover. He came back to face Mount Mayon, the raging beauty and muse of his youth. He came home to confront the country that he so loved and hated, the Philippines. He came back to die in the land of his birth. He wanders around the obliterated village meeting old friends and lovers.

A young Filipina searches for the missing links between her strange bleeding condition and her faraway mother's healing powers.