Rodrigo Duterte

In the Philippines, the journalist Maria Ressa fights a battle for democracy against president Duterte and his 'war on drugs', which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The searing story of President Duterte's bloody campaign against drug dealers and addicts in the Philippines, told with unprecedented and intimate access to both sides of the war - the Manila police, and an ordinary family from the slum. Shot in the style of a thriller, this observational film combines the look and feel of a narrative feature film with a real life revelatory journalistic investigation into a campaign of killings. The film uncovers a murky world where crime, drugs and politics meet in a deathly embrace - and reveal that although the police have been publicly ordered to stop extra-judicial killings, the deaths continue.

Filmmaker Mike De Leon released this short on the eve of the 1986 EDSA Revolt anniversary. During its 5 minutes, De Leon draws a harsh critique of the filipino president Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Beastmode interweaves what at first sight seem to be two unconnected storylines: the first two years of rule by President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, notorious for his war against drugs, and the reconstruction of a social and artistic experiment about violence and performance—a sort of Fight Club 2.0. The central figure in the experiment is the well-known Filipino actor Baron Geisler. He's apparently incapable of controlling his aggression, and ends up fighting in public. Social media explode, and a media frenzy ensues. Geisler and other protagonists look back in video diary style on the outcry their project has caused. The narrative line about the experiment is intercut with news footage and scenes from Duterte’s State of the Nation Address in 2017, while a demonstration was taking place outside. This is a fascinating exploration of aggression, sensationalism and manipulation in a country gripped by violence.