Dark Is the Night
Filipino director Adolfo Alix Jr. returns to the Festival with this timely story of a couple caught up in Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs when their son goes missing.
Adolfo Alix Jr.
Adolfo Alix Jr.
Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Adolfo Alix Jr.
The story of its namesake -- the forcible transfer of 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Japanese Army in 1942
Pastor Luis Aguila and his family are seemingly tested with their faith. Luis is an ex-convinct who is now the head of his church. Mildred, his wife, tries to hide her secret as she grapples between her family and church duties. Their youngest son Carlo wrestles with growing up and tying up his family together. All of them try to overcome these obstacles but things intensify when Pastor Aguila's daughter, Katrina defies her family when she falls in love with the mysterious Jigo.
Julian is a soldier stationed on a remote island in the Philippines. He has finished his three months of service on the island and is ready to leave, but news of a coup d’état in Manilla forces Julian to stay on the island longer. All Julian has is a walkie-talkie, radio and TV. Meanwhile, Julian senses someone watching him. When Julian loses contact with the main base, soldiers Lucio and Eric (Luis Alandy) are sent to the island. The soldiers then talk about a soldier previously stationed on the island and his encounters with a mermaid.
Jason and Billy struggling to fulfill their unlikely dream, and having their world crumble around them as a consequence.
70-year-old Virginia shares the old ancestral house with Delia, her ever-loyal maid. Delia is marrying her long-time boyfriend, Rene, and tearfully confides to Virginia that she wants to go home to her parents in the province to start a new family life with him. Haunted by a past that Virginia tries to conquer her only son Sonny Boy who disappeared years ago, what follows shows a portrait of a woman and a mother trying to juggle the sad realities of life in a cycle of life and death.
A tribute to filmmakers and National Artists Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal. In the "Day" segment, Piolo Pacual portrays the role of William, a drug addict who tries to rebuild his sense of self and reconnect with the people around him. For the "Night" segment, Pascual portrays the role of Philip, who works as a bodyguard for a mayor's son. The bodyguard believes that his boss considers him as part of the family but after a shooting incident, he realizes his real worth to his boss. As he struggles to hide, he is slowly consumed by the claws of darkness lurking the city.
Doña Atang, a once celebrated film producer from the earlier years of Filipino cinema, celebrates her one hundredth birthday. For her wish, she wants a reunion with all the actors and staff that she has worked with in the past. She is also looking for an unfinished film from one of her directors. Her grandson Michael decides to take the task of finding them. As he does, we remember the glorious years of cinema from its workers–fragments of a colorful past filled with faded memories.
The dramatization of the life of General Ronald dela Rosa.
Neo, a shy and mute young boy and Omar, a mischievous teenager are forced to live together by their front-liner parents during the quarantine to keep them safe. Their cat and mouse banter later develops into some sort of budding bromance - complicated by the accidental chance of an innocent kiss.
Ryan and Quinn, a gay couple living in an open relationship with Pancho is suddenly confronted by a reality during the pandemic: that they are all unhappy with the set-up. The 'threesome' tries to reconcile their feelings for each other. What ensues conveys the intricacies of the men's complicated relationship abound with love, pain, secrets and lies.