22/09/2026
Taking a look behind the lens of Rafael Manuelâs âFilipiñanaâ.
In 2020, Rafael Manuel presented his short film of the same title at the Berlinale and won the Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film). Initially, the director planned to raise money for a feature film, later admitting that he was naĂŻve and believed it would be quite easy. He was then advised to use the money he had collected to make a short film and build a profile around the feature he had in mind. After winning the Silver Bear at the Berlinale, he further developed the project, found the right collaborators, and shot the film. Six years later, he returned to the festival with his debut feature, âFilipiñanaâ.
The film follows Isabel, a new employee at the Maynila Country Club, a place with enough facilities to keep the creme-de-la-creme of Philippine society distracted and insulated from the countryâs socio-political problems. Isabel finds herself strangely drawn to the clubâs president as she pieces together a violent picture of what lies beneath its pristine surfaces.
Manuel stated that the biggest difficulty in turning his short film into a feature was making sure it wasnât simply an extension of what he had already told and shown, as well as avoiding a repetition of his own work.
The director describes âFilipiñanaâ as an open letter to his parents, acknowledging the world they built for him and what is passed on from generation to generation. He felt that a golf course was the perfect setting for a film exploring societal inequities, calling it a form of gentrification of land. Together with his production designer Tatjana F***y Honegger and cinematographer Xenia Patricia, he developed a visual language that could have existed 50 years ago, 50 years from now, or today. For him, it speaks to the timelessness of colonialism.
Through a slow-paced narrative, Manuel captures the Filipino experience of waiting for change. Furthermore, he opted for a minimalist structure, calling conventional narrative âa form of gentrification.â Reflecting on how increasingly privatized modern life has become, he noted that âyou can step out of your house and, in five seconds, youâre being sold something by a billboard. Actually, you donât even need to step out of your house.â In contrast, the structure of âFilipiñanaâ is intended to create an autonomous space for audiences, allowing viewers to take away whatever they want from the experience.
âFilipiñanaâ was selected as the Phillipinesâ entry for Best Internation Feature at the 99th Academy AwardsÂź.
