Melancholia is a 2008 Philippine black and white slow drama film shot, edited, composed, written, produced and directed by Lav Diaz.
The film begins with a young woman getting dressed in prostitutes clothing and walking up a long road from her apartment.
The prostitute has dinner at a small cafe, where a large man seems to recognize her and continually pesters her by referring to her as "Alberta".
The next day the nun continues to ask for money and the prostitute once again meets the pimp, who tries to bring her into his business.
We now realize that the prostitute, whose real name is Alberta Munoz, and the nun, who is really Rina Abad, are patients of a man named Julian Tomas who is having them undergo a role-playing therapy called MELANCHOLIA to help them mentally recover from the past tragedies and losses in their lives.
Julian engages in a bizarre therapy performance where he paces around a room smoking a cigarette while a patient continually rips pages out of a Bible and chews them until she starts to gag.
Alberta goes to rescue Rina's abandoned daughter Hannah from prostitution and brings her back home.
The film cuts to a pair of indigenous tribal men carrying Renato's dead body along with the other soldiers, to their village and performing a ritual of dance and chanting.
Alberta meets one of the live sex show performers from earlier in the film, who has completely immersed his mind and soul into Julian's therapy.
Ronnie Scheib of Variety called the film "Lav Diaz's latest madly uncommercial 7½ -hour magnum opus", and particularly complimented the "extraordinary final chapter".
Scheib summarised: "Simultaneously lamenting the futility of change yet celebrating reinvention, the improbable Melancholia lingers on the brain.