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Most Promising Talent Award (Director: Mikhail RED)

  • JAPAN PREMIERE

Special Programs < SANDAAN: 100 Years of Philippine Cinema >|Competition

NEOMANILA

Director: Mikhail RED

2017|Philippines|101min|Language: Filipino, Tagalog|Subtitles: Japanese, English

NEOMANILA
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Cast
Eula VALDES
Timothy CASTILLO
Rocky SALUMBIDES
Jess MENDOZA
Angeli BAYANI
Synopsis

Since President Rodrigo Duterte’s election, the Philippines has been in the grip of a “war on drugs”. where the police use bounty hunters to kill gangsters. A street orphan named Toto is one of many caught in the crossfire when he is forced by police to locate a wanted drug-dealer in exchange for the release of his jailed brother. Such actions do not go unpunished on the streets and a hit is put out on Toto but his luck seems to change when he meets Irma. She works as a pest exterminator during the day, and hired assassin at night. The older hit-woman offers the younger character a safe haven and the two develop a bond but loyalties are tested when Toto is ordered by the police to kill a familiar face.

In a stylistic reverse of his film, “Birdshot” (2016), Mikhail Red uses a handheld camera to bring audiences drama and violence but the themes remain the same, youngsters entering a world of corruption and moral ambiguity.