Called a “must watch” by Asian Movie Pulse and starring Filipino film and television leading man Jericho “Echo” Rosales as “Bong,” the poetic, neo-realist, short film plunges viewers into the complex world of a Filipino fisherman who, desperate for cash, finds himself embroiled in a dangerous undertaking. Wracked with guilt and fear, Bong feverishly seeks a way out.
Cabiling’s film is a fictional expose inspired by actual events and a story anonymously related to Al Jazeera by Filipino fishermen, who told of widespread human rights abuses among the nation’s most vulnerable. Rather than serving audiences a high-octane expose of the violence, Cabiling renders a more nuanced portrait, taking viewers inside the psychology of a man trapped by impossible circumstances.
Says Cabiling, “What attracts me most to Bong’s story is not just the inhumane politics and the vilification and killings of drug users, sellers and the poor in the Philippines, but also how this character’s circumstances are a window into the complex Filipino psyche’s search for value in the world.”