Singing in Graveyards (2016) Review: An Impersonator's Blues

Is Singing in Graveyards worth watching?

Yes, for viewers who enjoy slow, mood-driven art cinema: Singing in Graveyards is a haunting, offbeat portrait of an ageing performer living in someone else’s shadow. Bradley Liew gives the film a dreamy, melancholy atmosphere, and casting a real veteran of Filipino rock in the lead lends it a poignancy that goes beyond the script. The reservation is its length and looseness: at 143 minutes, with a story that drifts as much as it moves, it demands a patience not every viewer will have.

What is Singing in Graveyards about?

Singing in Graveyards follows Pepe, a 68-year-old man who makes his living impersonating a famous Filipino rock legend. He lives alone, and his days blur the lines between reality, imagination and something close to the mystical. Performing another man’s songs has become his whole identity.

Then he is offered the chance of a lifetime: to open for the legend’s own concert. There is a catch. To earn the slot he must do something neither he nor the man he imitates has ever done, and write a love song. The task forces Pepe to look for a voice of his own, possibly for the first time.

Pepe is played by Pepe Smith, himself a veteran of Filipino rock, and the cast includes Mercedes Cabral, Bernardo Bernardo, Susan Africa and the filmmaker Lav Diaz. Liew, a Malaysian director, made the film as a Malaysia–Philippines co-production. It is set in the Philippines, with dialogue mostly in Filipino alongside some English, and it runs 143 minutes.

A performer lost in someone else’s legend

The film’s central idea is rich. Pepe has spent so long imitating another musician that he no longer knows where the performance ends and he begins, and the challenge of writing a love song becomes a challenge to feel something of his own. Liew treats this with gentle humour and deep sadness, and there is a quiet irony in watching a man who has lived as a copy struggle to create something original.

Pepe Smith’s presence gives the story extra layers. A real rock musician in his later years, he brings a weathered, lived-in authenticity to the role, and his face and voice carry decades of history that no actor could simply perform. His scenes of rehearsing, wandering and performing are the heart of the film.

Dreamlike and deliberately slow

Liew’s style owes a clear debt to the slow cinema associated with Lav Diaz, who appears in the film. Scenes unfold in long takes, and the boundary between Pepe’s everyday life and his inner world is often blurred, so that imagined or mystical moments sit alongside ordinary routines. The result is hypnotic at its best, and the film’s atmosphere, lonely, nocturnal and quietly surreal, lingers.

The music is used sparingly but effectively. The songs Pepe performs and the love song he is trying to write give the film emotional anchors, and the moments when he sings are among its most affecting.

Where the drift becomes a drag

The film’s dreamlike approach is also its main weakness. The story is thin for such a long running time, and the dreamier passages can feel more like digressions than revelations. Supporting characters are sketched rather than developed, and viewers who want a clear arc or strong narrative momentum may find their patience tested well before the end. It is a film that rewards surrender more than attention to plot.

Who should watch Singing in Graveyards?

It suits admirers of slow, atmospheric art cinema, fans of Filipino and Southeast Asian independent film, and anyone interested in stories about music, ageing and identity. It needs a quiet evening and a willingness to go with its rhythms. There is little that is graphic; it is best for adults simply because of its pace and melancholy mood.

Two other Malaysian independent dramas worth pairing with it:

• Guang, another Malaysian film in which music becomes a way for a lonely man to express himself.
• Shuttle Life, a grittier Malaysian indie from the same period, grounded in urban social realism.

The verdict

Singing in Graveyards is a melancholy, often beautiful film about a man searching for his own voice after a lifetime of borrowing someone else’s. Its length and drifting structure make it a demanding watch, but Pepe Smith’s presence and Liew’s atmosphere make it a rewarding one for the right audience.

Rating: 3.5/5