Director : Sean Ellis
Script : Sean Ellis, Franck E. Flowers
Photographer : Sean Ellis
Editing : Richard Mettler
Music : Robin Foster
Actors : Jake Macapagal, John Arcilla, Althea Vega, Ana Abad-Santos, Erin Panlilio, Iasha Acelo, Miles Kanapi
Production : Chocolate Frog Films
Distribution :
Haut et Court Distribution
38, rue des Martyrs
75009 Paris
tél : 01 55 31 27 27
[email protected]
www.hautetcourt.com
Year : 2013
Screening : 2023
DCP, Color, 115 mn, OV tagalog FRSUB
Seeking a better life, Oscar Ramirez and his family leave the northern mountains of the Philippines to move to Metro Manila. As an easy target in this ruthless city, Oscar will have to risk everything for his loved ones.
When staying in Manila in 2008, Sean Ellis witnessed a fight between two cash escorts. « I wondered what they were arguing about. To me, it was obviously about some serious matter. As a movie director, I may tend to imagine things a bit too easily but I immediately told myself: “There must be a burglary going on”. I kept thinking about it, even imagining a beginning and an end to this argument: some twenty-page synopsis of what would end up being Metro Manila... Before starting to write the script, I went back to Manila to do some background work, to immerse myself in the street life, to understand the geography of the city. I didn’t want people to say « What does this Englishman know about Manila? ». Sean Ellis
In this gripping thriller, Sean Ellis takes a tender, sympathetic look at this family living in poverty, like so many others in the Philippines.