LOS ANGELES — In Rafael Manuel’s “Filipiñana,” 17-year-old Isabel, from rural north of the Philippines, works at a posh country club outside Manila, but amid a stifling heat and pervasive drought, she lines up golf balls for powerful men into the carefully manicured, verdant horizon.
As she tries to return a mislaid golf club to its owner, Dr. Palanca, Isabel soon discovers that the deeper she journeys into the most exclusive corners of the golf club, the closer she gets to the violent truths of the club, her native Philippines and her own past.
While a golf course may not be the first image one thinks of when it comes to the Philippines, film director Rafael Manuel told Spectrum News it’s an apt image to encapsulate the current and historical social-political climate of the country.
“In the Philippines, especially in Metro Manila — it’s a city of 15 to 20 million people — we have one public park and about 50 golf courses,” he said. “For me, the privatization of land, this theme is so important to me. The first golf courses in the Philippines were on American military bases. They [golf courses] become very powerful symbols of colonial violence that has been sort of papered over by manicured beauty.”
(Image courtesy of Kino Lorber Team)
Rafael Manuel said that for many Filipino filmmakers, like himself, there is a responsibility to talk about the situation in the Philippines. While there is a lot of beauty in the country, there is a dire need for change, a change that Rafael Manuel said has been promised for a long time and the people are still waiting for that change.
“That is beyond any storytelling conventions. This is what we wanted to explore and capture … the Filipino experience of waiting for change,” he told Spectrum News.
In “Filipiñana,” Isabel comes from the province and moves to Metro Manila to follow the cosmopolitan dream, which Rafael Manuel said is a trickle-down version of the American dream.
“What I really wanted to talk about was cultural tribalism and regionalism in the Philippines and how it seeps into politics and how dangerous it can be,” he said. “Beyond Ilocos, what I hope we are capturing and commenting on is the dangers of regionalism … reactionary regionalism when it comes to the political situation in the Philippines.”
How has “Filipiñana” been received by the public in the Philippines?
Rafael Manuel told Spectrum the film has been very divisive, which he likes because it goes back to the themes of gentrification.
“It’s supposed to be divisive,” he said. “For me, more important than whether a person likes the film or doesn’t like the film … it’s that they are able to … it’s the discourse the film is creating. I have to accept the fact that some people are not going to like it.”
“Filipiñana” is playing at select movie theaters in the Los Angeles area.
The film stars Jorybell Agoto, Agot Isidro, Angeli Bayani, Shamaine Buencamino, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna and Teroy Guzman.
Click the video above to watch the full interview with Rafael Manuel.