At an exclusive Manila golf club, 17-year-old Isabel is one of the workers maintaining an immaculate playground for the wealthy. As her fascination with the club’s president draws her beyond its rigid social boundaries, the resort’s postcard beauty gives way to a darker world of privilege and power, revealing the club as a microcosm of the Philippines itself.
Filipiñana
Filipiñana
Director
Rafael Manuel
Runtime
100 Minutes
Country
France, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, United Kingdom
Classification
Unclassified 18+
An exclusive Manila golf club is a world unto itself, its manicured greens and immaculate facilities maintained by an army of workers for the pleasure of its wealthy members. Among them is 17-year-old Isabel, whose fascination with the club’s powerful president draws her beyond the boundaries of her lowly position and deeper into a social order governed by class, gender and privilege. Rafael Manuel renders this enclosed world with the saturated artificiality of a vintage resort postcard, while workers move through its grounds in surreal, precisely choreographed patterns. As Isabel ventures further, the beauty and order of the club take on a more sinister dimension, revealing histories and hierarchies that extend far beyond its gates. With its artfully composed images and slyly unsettling shifts in tone, Filipiñana transforms a playground for the wealthy into a microcosm of the Philippines itself.
“Has the precision of a vivid dream.”
Screen International
“A rivetingly caustic indictment of his homeland.”
RogerEbert.com
Sundance
Berlin
Sydney
Melbourne
Karlovy Vary
San Francisco
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Film Credits
Director
Rafael Manuel
Year
2026
Country
France, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore & United Kingdom
Language
English, Filipino & Iloko
Subtitles
English
Type
Feature Fiction
Program Strand
World Cinema
Producer
Jeremy Chua, Alex Polunin, Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew, Nadia Turincev, Omar El Kadi & Rafael Manuel
Writer
Rafael Manuel
Cinematographer
Xenia Patricia
Editor
Rafael Manuel
Cast
Carmen Castellanos, Jorrybell Agoto & Teroy Guzman
Film Source
Magnify
Genre
BIPOC, Drama & Politics
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