The Woman Who Left is loosely based on a short story by Tolstoy: God Sees the Truth, But Waits (1872). Lav Diaz's parable of mercy and forgiveness takes off where Tolstoy ends, with the release from prison. Horacia Somorostro has spent decades in prison for a crime she didn't commit. Horacia knows who is guilty, and now seeks revenge – only: does she have it in her to be violent?... And how do you deal with other people adopting this seemingly private form of hatred? A film about life and death. Who makes these today?
Next to Dostoevsky, Tolstoy was there at the very beginnings of Lav Diaz's artistic activity, when he wanted to become a writer – given that filmmaking seemed so expensive and thereby unachievable. It is thus also the creative breadth, impact, power and complexity of novels such as Dostoyevsky's Demons (1872) or Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1878) that are conjured up in Diaz's works such as Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004), Death in the Land of Encantos (2007) or A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mistery (2016) – including their moral power and unconditional, spiritual depth.
