Filipiñana
Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto), a 17 year-old Ilokana from the northwestern coast of the Phillipines, had to move to Manila to find work. At her new job as a tee girl at the driving range of a luxe private golf club, Isabel becomes enamored of its president, Dr. Palanca (Teroy Guzman), but when she begins to traverse the club in order to return his putter, her eyes are opened to terrible truths in "Filipiñana."
Laura's Review: A-
Writer/director Rafael Manuel uses the golf course as a microcosm of wealth inequality, globalization and the patriarchy in his striking feature debut, its long shots precisely composed by cinematographer Xenia Patricia ("The Zodiac Killer Project," "100 Nights of Hero"). While Agoto carries the film's throughline, Manuel uses several little side stories to flesh out his world, one whose surface can be reminiscent of the artificiality and group activities in the Florida retirement community The Villages as depicted in 2020's "Some Kind of Heaven," but which reveals something darker. It is noteworthy that both the golf course and one of its pine trees which dies from the heat only to be replaced are both imported from America.
Manuel makes his point abundantly clear in his film's opening moments, a young female tour guide telling a busload of tourists about the course they're about to enter as a loudspeaker announces only one bottle of water per family to the swarm of people trying to get some outside on the city streets. Inside the grounds a kind of water ballet is being performed by the sprinklers which fill the air with the misty drops that keep the course lush and green. Except for that pine tree, of course, looking sickly in the heat and slated to be replaced, a symbol of the young girls working there. Isabel, a bit of a rebel who enjoys lying under the sprinklers in the stifling heat, will be told off by the heavy set middle-aged women who supervises the tee girls for venturing onto the course, which is forbidden. Later, a few tee girls will sneak up to her office, opening the door a crack to bathe in the air conditioning she has blasting and see her, feet up, shoveling food into her face as she watches television.
On the driving range, Patricia's camera views Isabel sitting between the vee created by her golfer's stance, staring straight ahead, mechanically placing golf balls on a tee (the cinematographer strategically uses the boxy academy ratio). She's afraid this inept golfer will hit her, but is advised that a ricocheting ball 'doesn't hurt that much' and that he will feel bad and give her a good tip. She's shown some interest as the 'new girl' by Dr. Palanca and begins asking about him, receiving ambiguous answers, although many tee girls giggle while suggesting the older Charlie (Elle Velasco) is paid well to 'take care of his balls.'
Manuel doesn't use a traditional score, sound designer Vincent Villa's ("Return to Seoul") exaggerated sounds of nature adding to the spa-like serenity of the environment, but he does feature musicians who perform regional songs for course members. At one point, Dr. Palanca himself provides the entertainment by singing 'You Always Hurt the One You Love' and suddenly we become aware of just how sadistic the lyrics he's chosen are. After asking Charlie herself about Palanca, she'll tell Isabel that the young girl says 'you're the only one that I want' with much more tenderness than when 'it was first said to me.' She also extends the man's putter, suggesting the girl return it (a passing of the torch?) as Charlie does not want to interact with his wife (Agot Isidro), 'a real piece of work.'
As Isabel wanders from one part of the course to another searching for its president, we will also follow an industrialist, Renato (Carlos Siguion-Reyna), who is trying to convince his niece Clara (Carmen Castellanos), recently returned from NYC, to stay in Manila and join his Golf Depot business. Clara is a picture of liberal guilt, not wanting her caddie Ina (Isabel Sicat) to search for her errant golf balls in the oppressive heat, but Ina assures her that that is the way it is done here. Ina also advises her to return to NYC, but Clara will face unimaginable guilt before she leaves the golf course. And when Isabel finally finds Dr. Palanca, her viewpoint will have changed entirely.
"Filipiñana" is a dreamlike immersion into a corrupted world. Rafael Manuel does have a tendency not to trust his audience, hammering home his points by spelling out the obvious multiple times, but the film is otherwise so perfectly composed it is a habit one hopes disappears with experience. Watch the film carefully over the closing credits which suggests this may already be happening as the filmmaker adds one last provocation.
Kino Lorber releases "Filipiñana" in select theaters on 8/28/26 before expanding. Click here for theaters and playdates.
