Movie Review: Magellan

The film portrays Ferdinand Magellan’s marriage to Beatriz Barbosa in Seville in 1517, focusing on their brief time together before his departure on the Spanish Crown’s ambitious expedition.

Set in the 16th century, the story follows Magellan—a young, ambitious Portuguese navigator—who rebels against the authority of the Portuguese King, unwilling to abandon his dream of discovering new worlds. Instead, he turns to the Spanish monarchy, persuading them to support his bold voyage to the fabled lands of the East.

Movie Review: Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon

Lt. Hermes Papauran, one of the best investigators of the Philippines, is in a deep moral crossroad, being a witness to his institution's being a party to a murderous anti-drug campaign, which is spearheaded by no less than the president of the country, Rodrigo Duterte. The moment Duterte sat as the new president of the Philippines in the year 2016, his biggest act was launching his so-called war against drugs, shocking the world for its brutality and the ensuing human rights abuses. Extra-judicial killings attributed to drugs have become rampant and most of the crimes are connected to the police. The atrocities are corroding Lt. Papauran physically and spiritually. He suffers from severe psoriasis, a skin disease resulting from insidious anxiety. A dark past haunts him and it has eventually and literally come back for a reckoning, for a closure.

 

Movie Review: Lahi, Hayop

Taking leave from their jobs at a gold mine, three workers journey to their home village on foot through the spectacular yet unforgiving wilderness of the mythical island of Hugaw. As time passes and their conversations intensify, buried histories emerge and a sense of psychosis invades the scene. As ever, Lav Diaz’s exquisitely subdued black-and-white images and patient rhythm lend a Brechtian register to the drama; almost always filmed from the same fixed distance, each scene is an immaculate tableau vivant. Behind the film’s folkloric façade, Diaz once again taps into the collective memory of defiant struggles against the tyranny of both contemporary Filipino society and colonial brutality, centred on the timeless image of men walking – one of the key traits of Pan.

 

Movie Review: Ang Panahon ng Halimaw

In the late 70s, a gang of militias, under the control of the military, terrorizes a remote village in the Philippines.The terror being inflicted on the populace is not just corporal but intensely psychological as well. They were constantly fed with apocryphal tales about the village leader. A few souls are not giving up. They are fighting. The poet/teacher/activist, Hugo Haniway, decides to find out the truth about the disappearance of his wife. A love story set in the darkest period of Philippine history, the Marcos Dictatorship. The narrative and the characters are a composite of real events and real people that happened and existed during the period.

Ang Panahon ng Halimaw Trailer & Poster - In Competition 68th Berlinale Berlin International Film Festival

Ang Babaeng Humayo Hits Mainstream Cinemas , Opens in Sept 28