Filipiñana

From Viennale

Rafael Manuel’s debut feature FILIPIÑANA centres on a teenage golf caddy called Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto) plunged into a world of pristine surfaces and tightly-controlled choreography—not ballet, but the everyday activities of a luxury golf course on the outskirts of Manila. Using static shots and fastidiously composed tableaux rendered in disarmingly vibrant colours, Manuel brings a playground for the wildly wealthy to uncanny life, creating a tension between its exacting beauty and the violence simmering beneath its shiny façade. While Isabel silently observes her employers and their patrons, her deadpan expression masking increasing distress over the bizarre demands of her much-coveted new job, another young woman, the Americanised niece of the country club’s proprietor, confronts the ugly realities upon which her own wealth is built. Executive produced by Jia Zhangke, FILIPIÑANA is a slow-burn anti-capitalist and anti-colonial screed that careens between dark comedy and psychological horror, offering an uncompromising critique of Filipino society that synthesises Michael Haneke’s unsettling formalism with Jacques Tati’s playfully monotonous rhythms. (Beatrice Loayza)