Inday Opil Goes to Heaven

In Age of Blight, 12 Asian filmmakers capture and imagine life under the pandemic, from the hospital corridors of Marawi to protest rallies in the streets of Bangkok. The film mirrors light amidst the chaos and darkness, life in the face of death. Participating filmmakers are Mervine Aquino (Philippines), Bagane Fiola (Philippines), Daniel Rudi Haryanto (Indonesia), Hassanodden Hashim (Philippines), Gladys Ng (Singapore), Nontawat Numbenchapol (Thailand), Carla Pulido Ocampo (Philippines), Edmund Telmo (Philippines), Mark Lester Valle (Philippines), Ligaya Villablanca (Philippines), Takayuki Yoshida (Japan), and Abdul Zainidi (Brunei). Edited and assembled by John Torres (Philippines).

The film is set in 2019. A small film crew is standing by as its members prepare for a shoot. The director says action and the timeline jumps. A 60-year-old cinephile spends his last days selling original copies, also the only copies, of Cebuano films just outside the entrance of a theater in downtown Cebu. A group of “tanods” wants to rid the sidewalk of illegal vendors like him. The film goes back to the small crew in modern times.

Intoxicated from their unspoken pasts, two souls from different islands of the Philippines cross path and continues the night forward in question of who or what is truly dead.

It is the year 2020, it is Joi’s last few months in Cebu. Her father, an engineer working on quarantine centers in Leyte, converses with her throughout the months.