Lengthy running times have largely confined the films of Filipino director Lav Diaz to the festival circuit: His breakthrough “Evolution of a Filipino Family” was shot over 10 years and clocked in at over 10 hours, and subsequent features like “Melancholia” and “Norte, the End of History” followed suit. Diaz has been categorized as a practitioner of “slow cinema,” and this has made his work sound even more forbidding outside hardcore cinephile circles.
But “When the Waves Are Gone,” his current feature, is surprisingly approachable and engrossing, especially in its dynamic first third when we are introduced to our two protagonists: Hermes (John Lloyd Cruz), a cop and instructor at a police academy, and Primo (Ronnie Lazaro), a former cop who has just gotten out of jail after 10 years and is seeking vengeance against Hermes for helping to get him sentenced.