While on a trip to Thailand, a successful American businessman tries to radically change his life. Back in New York, his wife and daughter find their relationship with their live-in Filipino maid changing around them. At the same time, in the Philippines, the maid's family struggles to deal with her absence.
Two women, an army officer and a guerrilla fighter cross paths in a mission and find out they are mirror images of each other. They uncover a dark past that unite them more in the midst of conflict.
A story about victims of summary executions. Three people start a strange therapy to escape their agonies.
A Filipino poet hearkens back to his village after spending years in Europe. Horrified to discover that the community has been buried under landslides, he begins wandering through the countryside, reconnecting with friends, lovers and family members whose lives teeter on the brink of destruction.
An embittered law student commits a brutal double murder; a family man takes the fall and is forced into a harsh prison sentence; a mother and her two children wander the countryside looking for some kind of redemption.
A wandering peddler suddenly decides to separates from his group of travellers, his reasons are unknown and the dangers will be many.
Set on the eve of a fictional inaugural of the Bangsamoro Government, the film revolves around Daud, a scion of a political dynasty who is reluctant to become a member of the Parliament, and his college buddy Marco, a struggling journalist assigned to cover the inaugural. The duo drive off to the countryside, reminiscing their days as student activists and discovering their deepest longings as hostages of a future they will inherit.
Alfad, a Lumad whose soul returns to his homeland to settle unfinished businesses and to finally rest. It is based on the Lumad’s belief that when a person dies his soul goes back to his homeland.
A story about three children struggling in a depressed neighborhood with their means of survival arriving from the package given to them by their parents who works abroad.
On a commuter's trip from Manila's business district to the suburbs, the director finds a myriad of possibilities, ranging from miniature ironic situations to a love story that is finally finding its unexpected closing.
From What Is Before chronicles the gradual decline of a remote village in the early 1970s Philippines and the strange occurrences that befall it and its people, coinciding with Ferdinand Marcos' proclamation of martial law.
An artist struggles to finish his work while a storyline about a cult plays in his head. As the cult spirals towards a fundamentalism that will destroy the world, the artist decides to destroy his muse to redeem the world.
The film begins with his capture by Philippine and US forces under Frederick Funston's command in 1901, then flashes back to 1886, when an old woman gives Aguinaldo and his childhood friend Candido Tirona cryptic prophecies. Ten years later, Aguinaldo is inducted into the Katipunan and later assumes leadership of its Cavite chapter while becoming mayor of Cavite El Viejo. When the trouble breaks out in Manila in late August 1896, Aguinaldo tries to assure the Spanish provincial government of non-interference and covertly marshals his forces despite a lack of weapons. Learning that the Spanish mostly put their forces in Manila, Aguinaldo finally mobilizes his troops and take the command of the Katipunan forces in Cavite
A dozen foreigners are kidnapped by a terrorist group in the Philippines.
Ang Huling Araw ng Linggo spans a week in a life of seven individuals with interconnected narratives.
A thriller about a never-ending war, a town ravaged by a devastating storm, and the woman caught in between.
One morning, residents of a rural village are horrified when the sun rises in the West. According to Islamic belief, this phenomenon signals the Apocalypse. As village folk react differently to the situation, a tragedy strikes when one of the residents is raped and her brother brutally murdered as he tries to avenge her. Steep in superstition, the villagers attribute these to the Devil himself.
Set in Mindanao, young Faisal, after both his parents were killed due to a ransom kidnapping, carries a bag filled with dollars and attempts to elude soldiers with his 2 new companions Amrayda and Fatima who are also in need of safety as violence and turmoil escalates in their parea.
Beginning at the break of dawn and ending the next morning, the story, set around a rugged city intersection, follows the path of a marked one-thousand-peso bill as it transfers from one character to another, returning to its originator in the end, blood-tainted. The money leads us to each of the five offbeat characters, all in desperate need of their soul's redemption: a disillusioned tabloid reporter planning to commit suicide in a motel, a nightclub dancer con prostitute who has avowed to give her kid sister a better life, a fallen henchman resurfacing to score big time, a chronic runaway teenage girl held captive as sex slave by a cop, and a long-suffering son bearing a sadomasochistic relationship with his brutish, half-paralyzed father who behaves like a mad dictator in his wheelchair.
An ordinary taxi ride takes Jun, a young executive, into the unusual story of Ben, a 35 year-old taxi driver in Manila on how he became a lanzones farmer in Camiguin island, Mindanao.
Rashid Ali returns to his Maguindanao hometown after studying and working for more than 25 years in Barcelona, Spain. Idealistic, he dreams of using what he learned in Europe to improve the lives of his people. But nothing has changed since he left. Politicians remain corrupt, poverty is widespread, his people desperate.
A struggling farmer joins forces with a local policeman to rescue his grandson and take down a marijuana cartel, triggering a deeply personal journey that tests their beliefs and integrity.
A 19th century woman named Salome, whose identity has been shrouded in myth and legend, becomes the center of a cult that has polarized a community. Like a jigsaw puzzle, a town pieces together myth, memory and aspirations to know the woman that has captured everyone’s imagination.
The story of a woman ravaged by war in Mindanao. In search of peace, she runs to the city but violence and death continue to haunt her.
A filmmaker revisits the town of Tayug, Pangasinan in preparation for a new feature film she is making about the folk hero Pedro Calosa and the Tayug Uprising of 1931. As she revisits the actual sites in Tayug where the infamous uprising had taken place, she imagines scenes in her new film about the subject. As she goes deeper in her research at Tayug, she uncovers the memories of the townspeople about Pedro Calosa and the Tayug Uprising of 1931.
Piyo refuses to accept the responsibilities that comes with being the only son of a Datu from the Talaandig Tribe. He defies his destiny and runs away from home to pursue his dreams of freedom only to find himself behind bars when he is mistaken as a rebel.
This is a Filipino omnibus film about three different journeys.
In the cold west, Motel Acacia is tasked with exterminating immigrants by the government through a BED, haunted with the spirit of a Filipino tree demon, that eats men and impregnates women. A young Filipino man, JC, is groomed by his tyrannical caucasian Father to take over the business.
Abused and battered wife, Joy, stands up for justice against her alcoholic husband, Dante, in a turmoil process of the justice system.
A Filipina immigrant from Australia returns home to search for the remains of her parents, who worked in the nationalist movement as doctors and were murdered by a para-military group in Mindanao.
Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.
Story revolves around the sad plight of the live sex performers Rolly (Paolo Rivero), Gigi (Klaudia Koronel), Rosita (Ana Capri), Sandra (Hazel Espinosa and Vio (Simon Ibarra) and what drives them to do the inexplicable.