Dante Perez

Eight days before Christmas, Typhoon Sendong ravaged a small city in the northern coastline of the Philippines, burying most of it in water. 8,128 families displaced; almost 5,000 dead; at least a thousand missing, most of them presumed to have been buried alive. Three weeks after, a man is found walking around the city in broad daylight, a dead "baby" in his arms. He wanders around the business district, dogged by locals who wondered, sympathized, empathized. Following the ghost of his wife, he walks on until he reaches a river and drowns himself.

Hong Sang-Soo’s Lost in the Mountains (South Korea, 32min) the visitor is the supremely self-centred Mi-Sook, who drives to Jeonju on impulse to see her classmate Jin-Young – only to discover that her friend is having an affair with their married professor, who Mi-Sook once dated herself. The level of social embarrassment goes off the scale. In Naomi Kawase’s Koma (Japan, 34min), Kang Jun-Il travels to a village in rural Japan to honour his grandfather’s dying wish by returning a Buddhist scroll to its ancestral home. Amid ancient superstitions, a new relationship forms. And in Lav Diaz’ Butterflies Have No Memories (Philippines, 42min) ‘homecoming queen’ Carol returns to the economically depressed former mining town she came from – and becomes the target of an absurd kidnapping plot hatched by resentful locals. Serving as his own writer, cameraman and editor, Diaz casts the film entirely from members of his crew and delivers a well-seasoned mix of social realism and fantasy. —bfi

The story is set in a remote spot in the Philippines. The economic crisis has taken over and a group of men doesn’t do much apart from drink. Until an enchanting Canadian woman arrives.

Entremêlant fiction et documentaire, DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCANTOS suit plusieurs personnages dans les paysages et les villages dévastés de la région de Bicol aux Philippines, au sud de l’île de Luçon, suite au passage du typhon Durian en 2006 : un poète engagé, Benjamin Agusan, revient dans sa région natale, après des années d’exil en Russie, pour y chercher le corps de ses proches et parents. Il y retrouve ses amis d’enfance, les artistes Catalina et Teodoro, mais également les fantômes du passé...

Deliberately structured and less beholden to its narrative, the film is told in three parts, with each part pertaining to each of the three visits of the time-travelling visitor from when the country was fighting for independence from Spain.

A story about victims of summary executions. Three people start a strange therapy to escape their agonies.

Il y a des années, Tina a été envoyée aux États-Unis pour vivre avec sa tante à cause d'un incident inexpliqué impliquant ses parents. Des années plus tard, elle retourne aux Philippines dans son ancienne maison avec l'espoir d'un nouveau départ. Malheureusement pour elle, elle n'est pas seul dans la maison, le réfrigérateur est possédé par une force démoniaque. Tina doit creuser dans le passé pour découvrir la vérité sur ce qui est arrivé à ses parents, et par la même occasion trouver un moyen de détruire cet ennemi.

Mondomanila tells the story of teenage anti-hero Tony de Guzman and the rough neighborhood he calls home.

What can a family do if someone disappears in a dictatorship? You can’t go to the police for help or information. Many families were affected in this way by the cruelty of the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986). The film shows one of them as an example of paradise lost.

Marinduque, an island province in the Philippines 172 kilometers south of Manila, is where the largest mining disaster in the country’s history occurred. MINA, an environmental activist trying to make ends meet financially, sets out on a journey to Marinduque to seek answers to the mining disaster. She joins a secret organization led by FRANCIS who feeds her confidential information regarding the people responsible for the tragedy.

Depicting the struggles of Filipinos in rural areas under the brutal Marcos regime, a family of poor farmers tries to overcome the challenges brought on by corruption and greed for power.

Mondomanila tells the story of teenage anti-hero Tony de Guzman and the rough neighborhood he calls home.

The story is set in a remote spot in the Philippines. The economic crisis has taken over and a group of men doesn’t do much apart from drink. Until an enchanting Canadian woman arrives.