A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (Filipino: Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis) is a 2016 historical fantasy drama film directed by Lav Diaz.

Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis is a gorgeous film that traces the outlines of the Philippine character, flaws and virtues and all, from the ferment of an end-of-the-century rebellion through four hundred years of colonial past down to ancient pagan roots.

If every foreign critic hated it for its many flawed details (forgot to mention, some of the Spanish sounded stilted), its dialogue-heavy dramaturgy, its (ultimately irrelevant) length, none of this would matter.

The film was made for us Filipinos, to fill our hunger for poetry and narrative and magic, to give us back a sense of our storied past, our mythical and historical dead."

Tracing various character paths and threads throughout the Philippine Revolution of 1896-97, the embroidery on display through calculated measures that redefine patience weave urban legends, local traditions, real-life artistic expressions with the most sensitive chapter of Philippine history.” —Nikola Grozdanovic, Indiewire “An ambitious statement by one of contemporary cinema’s authentic radicals.” — Screen Daily “Certainly one of Diaz’s finest films.” — Cinema Scope