Raw and intense drama about the Filipino family Domingo, each of the members of which try to survive in their own clumsy way and wrestle with dilemmas in an immoral society.
Gambling is a popular pastime in the Philippines, where corruption, fear and superstition form the wobbly pillars of society. LV is a woman with adult children who earns her money with an illegal gambling centre in her back garden. But things aren't going too well with the business - she has to pay out too much money - and her children aren't doing too well either. Her daughter is sought by a gang, her eldest, divorced son is trying to augment his paltry wages as a stable boy with illegal practices and the youngest son makes a bet about sex with his girlfriend.
Promising young film maker Adolfo Alix Jr films the sad story of the dysfunctional family rawly and without frills. Ante is Alix Jr's eleventh film since his prize-winning directing debut Donsol in 2006. His Aurora is also screened at the festival. At present he's working on two new films: Kalayaan (with support from the Hubert Bals Fund) and Porno.
PROGRAMMER NOTES
The present success of Filipino cinema has several secrets. One of those secrets is the convincing social realism of the stories and locations. It's difficult to imitate these elsewhere, because Filipino society with its hysterical Catholicism and its inhabitants of rubbish dumps is too sad and exuberant for that. Even more difficult to imitate are the elderly actresses who play the lead in the most appealing films. They play women who have a whole life of suffering behind them. You can't find actresses like that in every country. It takes a popular cinema in which elderly actresses can also play a role and it also demands the possibility of stepping independent. So an actress like Laurice Guillen, who plays a very convincing lead in this film and who already has 40 years acting experience and has even directed her own films, can still be asked by a young independent director. And as is obvious, she goes along with total abandon.
Adolfo Alix jr. previously made Adela, a film focussing on an old actress played by Anita Linda. A beautiful and fragile film. Ante is rather grim and also demonstrates beautifully that this young and productive film maker is still able to make very different films, if necessary or withhold actresses.
GjZ