Forbidden Memory

One morning, residents of a rural village are horrified when the sun rises in the West. According to Islamic belief, this phenomenon signals the Apocalypse. As village folk react differently to the situation, a tragedy strikes when one of the residents is raped and her brother brutally murdered as he tries to avenge her. Steep in superstition, the villagers attribute these to the Devil himself.

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 Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081, putting the entire country under martial law.

Set on the eve of a fictional inaugural of the Bangsamoro Government, the film revolves around Daud, a scion of a political dynasty who is reluctant to become a member of the Parliament, and his college buddy Marco, a struggling journalist assigned to cover the inaugural. The duo drive off to the countryside, reminiscing their days as student activists and discovering their deepest longings as hostages of a future they will inherit.

A 19th century woman named Salome, whose identity has been shrouded in myth and legend, becomes the center of a cult that has polarized a community. Like a jigsaw puzzle, a town pieces together myth, memory and aspirations to know the woman that has captured everyone’s imagination.

Three Filipino siblings, all domestic workers in Italy, meet in the villa that one of the sisters has inherited. Shared memories and buried grievances come to the surface and put their fragile relationship to the test.

While Mount Banahaw is the place where fertile streams of spirituality, mysticism, the occult, and the environment combine to provide a potent ground for the transmission and exchange of secret and sacred knowledge, it can be said to be a bazaar peddling bizarre mysteries.

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.

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).

A princess seeks refuge in a convent to escape an arranged marriage. A young prince tries to make sense of his station. A giant bird mysteriously appears after centuries of absence. Masla a Papanok mixes history, myth, memory and magic to reimagine the Spanish colonial period in Mindanao like never before.

Su Kinadsusumpat nu Bagi (The Entwinement of Fate) follows siblings Aisha and Ali as they navigate grief and survival within their Moro community after the death of their parents. The only inheritance left behind is their father’s small tinagtag business—a Maguindanaon delicacy that becomes both their livelihood and their last connection to home. Determined to preserve her father’s legacy, Aisha continues making and selling tinagtag. But as a young lady forced to take her mother’s roles, the burden of keeping the business alive slowly wears on her. Meanwhile, Ali struggles with the weight of their circumstances. Torn between keeping his father’s memoir and moving forward with his dreams, he began to question whether holding onto tradition is worth the cost. As circumstances deepen, the siblings are forced to confront the grief they have long avoided, the fractures within their identity, and the fragile bond that continues to entwine them together.

A family is in ruins after the last male member dies. To salvage their future, the matriarch Kadiguia decides to look for a suitable husband for the eligible Tonina to continue the line of martyrs and warriors. Many miles away in the city, Aida secretly works in a hotel after falling victim to an illegal recruiter. She hides this fact from her family who believes that she is in faraway Kuwait working as a nanny.

Rashid Ali returns to his Maguindanao hometown after studying and working for more than 25 years in Barcelona, Spain. Idealistic, he dreams of using what he learned in Europe to improve the lives of his people. But nothing has changed since he left. Politicians remain corrupt, poverty is widespread, his people desperate.

A documentary on the filmmaker’s reflection on the Bangsamoro conflict using his grandfather’s house as a metaphor for his people’s longing for peace in their homeland.

The film follows Sab, a transporter for local drug cartels. Amidst an imminent war between her superiors, Sab also deals with her dying grandmother's last wish that she bear a child. When Sab learns that she's barren, this leads her to darker practices and revelations. Markado: Bakunawa sa Duha Ka-Manglahing Takna is the first ever full-length film to be completely made and produced by local filmmakers from Cagayan de Oro city.

The discovery of a mysterious alien shell in a trench transforms the lives of two star-crossed lovers, Paleng and Eliong, and their threatened coastal village in Davao City, unearthing secrets deeper than the surrounding perilous waters.