MANILA, Philippines – Calling all cinephiles! Tingin Southeast Asian Film Festival will be screening 10 award-winning films featuring folktales hailing from ASEAN countries in Shangri-La Plaza Mall from August 17 to 18.
The 7th installation of Tingin will revolve around the theme “Enchantments for a Fragile World,” with the aim to strengthen Filipinos’ ties to the neighboring ASEAN countries through films that take inspiration from their respective region’s myths and legends.
“Filmmakers have time and again drawn from the rich wellspring of folklore, to revisit old paradigms, to use it as a foil to new but harmful lifeways, or to serve as anchor for a society buttered by scientism,” festival director Maya Quirino said, according to a press release.
“Some of Southeast Asia’s auteurs have built the most important work around the enduring tales and expositions of indigenous cultures still given to mystery.”
Here are the six full-length films and four short films slated for screenings on Tingin Southeast Asian Film Festival:
The Long Walk (Laos)
The opening film for the festival is from the first and only female director in Laos: Mattie Do.
The Long Walk follows an old hermit who is transported 50 years back in time to his mother’s death by the ghost of a road accident victim. The film premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori section, as well as the Contemporary World Cinema section of the Toronto Film Festival.
Dreaming and Dying (Singapore)
Singaporean director Nelson Yeo marks his comeback to Tingin with a film that bagged the Pardo d’oro for Best Film Feature at the Locarno Film Festival.
Dreaming and Dying tells the story of three middle-aged friends reunited after several years. As they take this opportunity to express unsaid feelings, a surprising turn threatens their past lives to resurface.
Once Upon a Time, There Was a Mom (Myanmar)
In 2023, Ling Htet Aung first released Once Upon a Time, There Was a Mom, which went on to win Best Screenplay at the Silver Screen Awards.
The film follows a man who transforms into his teenage self after his wife’s death. Now widowed and several years younger, he must navigate his complex relationship with his son, who now happens to be the same age as him.
Memoryland (Vietnam)
Vietnam sends Kim Quy Bui’s film that highlights three different yet connected characters: a woman with a stubborn son who will not honor her burial wishes, a widow who brings the ashes of her husband to his ancestors’ village, and a painter who found love late and eventually lost it.
Tackling death and rituals that accompany it, the film has been shown in various festivals such as Berlin, Busan, Hong Kong, and Moscow.
Snow in Midsummer (Malaysia)
Set in 1969 Malaysia, the film is all about Ah Eng who seeks protection in an opera troupe during a deadly racial riot and 49 years later, the loss defines her life.
This film by Chong Keat Aun premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Golden Dragon (Cambodia)
The past and future of Cambodia is represented in this film where a man wakes up in a hospital and he tries to remember why he visited in the first place. Bothered by dreams, memories, and unfamiliarity of his birthplace, a talk with the nurse helps him in his journey.
Golden Dragon is Boren Chhith’s debut film.
Worship (Thailand)
Directed and written by Uruphong Raksasad, Worship crisscrosses the geographical and spiritual latitudes of Thailand.
It talks about the ritualized power of faith which eventually results in shaping people’s daily lives.
Of Other Tomorrows Never Known (Indonesia)
Natasha Tontey’s film competed in the Singapore International Film Festival 2023 and screened at the HCMC International Film Festival 2024.
The story focuses on how to renew spiritual, material, and technological relationships with the ancestors’ spirits despite appearing illogical by acknowledging the existence of multiple worlds.
Part of Me (Brunei)
Hazrul Aizan directed this 36-minute film about a conflicted aspiring singer in 2022. In the same year, Aceh Film Festival screened the movie.
Although the film is fictional, it sheds light on the struggle of following one’s dreams and living up to the family’s expectations.
In My Mother’s Skin (Philippines)
Closing the festival is the Philippines’ entry to Tingin: In My Mother’s Skin, a horror film directed by Kenneth Dagatan.
Set during World War II, In My Mother’s Skin sees a young girl find comfort in a flesh-eating fairy in disguise as she scrambles to find a cure for her ailing mother. It was the only Filipino film that premiered at the Sundance International Film Festival in 2023. – with reports from Fore Esperanza/Rappler.com
Fore Esperanza is a Rappler intern. She is taking up English language studies at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology.