Philippines

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As far as their film school final project is concerned, these three studentshave only one goal in mind – international fame, includingOscars and festival prizes. They know what foreign audiences expectfrom Philippine cinema – prostitution, abuse, rubbish tips and slums –and apply this magic formula to develop the ultimate in misery porn.A mother, battered by life, sells her child to a sex tourist; a story asharsh and realistic as it is rousingly emotional. More

A group of armed and masked men belonging to the Muslim Abu Sayyaf group burst into a hotel on an island resort and kidnap twelve foreign guests. The attack was intended to target employees of the World Bank, but they have already left the resort. The abductees are tourists and Christian missionaries who are now forced on a gruelling foot march through the Philippine jungle. Together, the hostages and the kidnappers find themselves having to cope with the trials of nature; gradually, the climate of fear, prejudice and hatred evolves into a strange, symbiotic relationship. More

In Tagalog, the language of the Philippines, Lola means grandmother. We are shown two grandmothers, one whose grandson is lying in the morgue, and the other who is visiting hers in prison because he is accused of killing him. We see two grandmothers in pain, one preparing a funeral, the other trying to get an alleged offender out of prison. More