Liryc Dela Cruz

An embittered law student commits a brutal double murder; a family man takes the fall and is forced to take a harsh sentence; and a mother and her two children wander the countryside in search of some kind of redemption.

The Philippines, 1972. Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad, and houses are burned. Ferdinand E. Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081, putting the entire country under Martial Law.

Kath, an Italian-Filipino woman, works remotely as a digital content moderator in Genoa. When she learns that a colleague in the Philippines has taken his own life—crushed by the very job that fills her own days (the endless cataloging of beheadings, torture, live-streamed suicides, and child abuse)—she initially takes two days off, then extends her break, no longer convinced she can bring herself to return to her terminal. A massage appointment introduces her to Jenny, a Filipino woman who tends to people's bodies as a side job. That scheduled hour evolves into something more—an encounter neither woman expected. Each carrying her own burdens and losses, they finally find a way, together, to stop being invisible. The screen, once capable only of wounding them, now reflects a new image: a redemptive possibility for healing.

Encyclopaedias describe St. Elmo's fire as a harmless meteorological phenomenon caused by a strong static discharge. In Philippine mythology, a "santelmo" is a wandering soul of a deceased person who has not found peace yet. Similarly, young men wandering through countryside seek in vain reconciliation with the world in this hypnotic black and white poem that resembles the work of Lav Diaz because of its contemplative pace. The three young men, whose aimless journey is accompanied only by rustling of leaves and grass, chirping of insects, and singing of birds, speak about people for whom they have suffered and whom they plan to take revenge on. Yet, they are prevented from freeing themselves by memories that cannot be killed.

Filmmaker’s intimate statement from isolation, in which he reads letters from a mother longing for her son, whom she has not seen for four years.

The Philippines is visited by an average of 20~28 strong typhoons and storms every year. It is the most storm-battered country in the world. Last year, Typhoon Haiyan, considered the strongest storm in history, struck the Philipines, leaving in its path apocalyptic devastation.

Andrés Bonifacio, the freedom fighter known as the father of the Philippine revolution, was executed by rival revolutionaries in 1897. His wife, Gregoria de Jesus, searched for his body in the mountains for 30 days. It was never found.

The filmmaker went back to his hometown to make a touching portrait of his sick grandmother. 94-year-old Concepcion has been suffering from nervous breakdown for the past 50 years. She chooses to live alone and is haunted by random memories of the past: a memory of a nation and other life’s mysteries. Now, she faces a new period in her life as she slowly loses the capacity to remember.