The Missing 2023
When an alien comes back to take him, a mouthless young man's life twists and turns as his memories untangle.
When an alien comes back to take him, a mouthless young man's life twists and turns as his memories untangle.
After years of imprisonment in the Middle East for a crime he did not commit, Lino finally returns to his small town. He hopes to relive his lost dreams and bring back everything that was taken away from him. With his red suitcase filled with misery and uncertainty, he reunites with his past. Revisiting what he left behind, he discovers that life went on without him. As he tries to fill the emptiness, he realizes that he is now the void.
Gibson Bonifacio stopped speaking when he was a child. Now twenty, he returns home to Manila for Christmas. While always festive in the Philippines, for his family it is tinged with sadness, marking the anniversary of his twin brother’s death.
Padre De Pamilya is a story about a father Joselito Mirasol (Ariel Rivera) whose only wish is for his children to grow up as good Catholic Christians. Unfortunately, his salary as a government officer is not enough to make ends meet. And because he is working under a corrupt mayor (Tessie Tomas), the temptation to become a corrupt government official are always there.
In 1982, a fourteen-year-old movie fanatic from an underprivileged family in the Municipality of Manapla coincidentally witnesses the production shoot of Oro, Plata, Mata in his hometown. Full of determination he approaches the director, Peque Gallaga, in the hopes of landing a job that would help in providing for his family, and feed his passion.
Jay is the name of the two protagonists in the film, one is living, the other dead. The living Jay is producing a documentary of the dead Jay, a gay teacher who was brutally killed. As Jay recreates and examines the life of his subject, his own life is affected when he unravels his subject's hidden life and secret love.
Boses (Voices) is the story of a musician named Ariel who offers violin lessons to a child of the slums. Through the violin, the abused child Onyok is able to get back his voice from a mute, desensitized existence. A violin teacher and his student, a mute 7-year old abused child in a shelter, develop a friendship stemming from their love of music. Ariel discovers the immense talent of Onyok hiding behind a veneer of silence and pain caused by an unhappy and cruel father. In the developing relationship of teacher and student, both characters reveal more of themselves that otherwise may have remained unspoken. They discover each other's strengths and failures through the violin lessons.
At the start of the twentieth century, a small province-island earned the moniker 'Sugar Bowl' when it became the sugar capital of the Philippines- the Island of Negros.
Badong, an established painter, comes home and returns to his old studio. He has a piece in mind that requires a specific model to pose nude. He wants Mimosa, his former nude model and ex live-in partner. Years ago, Mimosa left him for another man.
While trying to cozy up to the sexy and mysterious Mina, who recently moved into the boardinghouse above his shop, unlucky Xerox operator Lito is unwittingly placing his life in grave danger.
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.
The night before the lockdown, while reviewing some unused footages from my latest film project (Hinulid), a small box from an anonymous sender arrives. The box contains a Bikol translation of the Tagalog long poem, Ibong Adarna, and an egg.
When they have no one to pass their "mutya" forward so they can finally die, aging "aswangs" in Antique are believed to seek for the mystical lake in Negros where they can just turn into ashes and disappear forever. This is the story of a 78 year old aswang and the young man who helped her find the lake.
A fisherman living along the Bicol River searches for his missing wife. His faith in God is tested when he finally finds her.
Two lads, best friends since childhood reunite at the beach but as their bond gets stronger they are reminded of their fears to a mythical creature inherent in the place.
In transit, Carlo reminisces the blissful memories of his beloved mother, Joy, who died a few months ago while the country was in lockdown facing a worldwide pandemic. As he returns to his hometown Pampanga to reunite with his family, he will be facing a first birthday without his mother.
Inside the Rabadon house, nobody talks. Lives are kept to themselves; problems are not shared; questions are not entertained. The people living inside it have become used to leaving everything unstirred especially Margaret, the mother of the home. Margaret's desire for cleanliness and order alienates her from her family. She cannot confront the problems of her life and so she confronts dirty dishes, ugly stains, and disorderly appliances. To get to know her family, she snoops around - entering rooms, opening cabinets, reading journals she is not supposed to read. But everything changes when a journal entry of her daughter's makes her unravel, stirring the unstirred life that she has held on to for years.
After the lockdown silenced the Higantes festivities, Tupe finds himself jobless and isolated. He sees a glimmer of hope when he qualifies to receive financial help from the government. But getting his hands on that money is not as easy as he thought it would be.
A runaway daughter comes home, in need of money for an operation. She asks her for money but her mother strongly refused and just scolded her. So she stole her mother’s rooster but immediately bonded with the chicken. While her mother frantically searches for her lost rooster, she finds it on the hill, with Lilian standing beside it. Lilian confesses her real situation. Unexpectedly, she receives the reassurance that she needs, something that she would never have thought of earlier.
A wounded activist ends up in a toilet and meets two members of the oppressed masses whose only reality is living on toilet fees.