Forum of Independents - Competition 2015 / Violator / Philippines 2014
A typhoon is slowly approaching Manila. And in the swelter that accompanies the storm something ominous is hiding which awakens suicidal tendencies and other inexplicable urges in the city’s inhabitants. This surprisingly self-assured and mature directorial debut is a sophisticated portrait of a society into which evil has come a-creeping.
A devastating typhoon is sweeping over the Philippines, slowly approaching Manila. As if they sensed the final judgment looming, some of the city’s inhabitants behave in ways that are hard to explain. The intriguing mosaic of stories gradually leads us to a police station where the night shift is forced to wait out the forces of nature while a new prisoner sitting in one of the cells appears to be connected to the mysterious powers concentrated in the storm. This focused first feature by a Filipino artist who has thus far only written about film offers a grimly-painted, symbolic treatment of a society that must suddenly come to grips with its innermost fears. In his unusually compact, esthetically provocative, and semantically ambiguous debut, the filmmaker creates an electrifying atmosphere that takes inspiration from the B horror movies of the eighties, the survival horror video game series Silent Hill, as well as the director’s own personal experience.
Hubert Poul
101 min / Color, DCP
European premiere
Director Dodo Dayao
/ Screenplay Dodo Dayao
/ Dir. of Photography Albert Banzon, Gym Lumbera
/ Music Marcushiro Nada and Ace Nada
/ Editor Lawrence S. Ang
/ Art Director Richard Somes, Erwin Sanchez
/ Producer Tonee Acejo, Lawrence S. Ang
/ Production Quiapost Productions, Creative Programs Inc.
/ Cast Joel Lamangan, Victor Neri, Timothy Mabalot, Rk Bagatsing, Anthony Falcon, Andy Bais
/ Contact Quiapost Productions, Creative Programs Inc.
Dodo Dayao is a film intellectual and a multi-talented artist. Besides the online blog where he regularly posts his film reviews, he is also active as a script editor and comic strip author. He has significantly contributed to the publication of the pivotal book Philippine New Wave: This Is Not a Film Movement, which introduces the Philippines’ most prominent contemporary filmmakers. Dayao collaborated with one of the artists mentioned in the book, renowned experimenter John Torres, on the script for the short Lukas nino (2013). Up to now his own short films have by and large been screened at galleries. Violator (2014), his first feature, immediately positioned him among the region’s most talented moviemakers.
Quiapost Productions
Unit 3D Valuepoint Executive Apartments, 1229, Makati City
Philippines
E-mail: [email protected]
Creative Programs Inc.
c/o Ronald Arguelles, 8th Floor, ELJ Building, ABS-CBN Communication Center, Mother Ignacia Street, 1103, Quezon City
Philippines
Phone: +63 241 522 72 loc. 3171
E-mail: [email protected]
Dodo Dayao
Tonee Acejo
Producer
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