The Aswang is a mythological creature that lives in the Philippines and prays, when needed, for its inhabitants. Its presence, though ancestral, is felt in the present. To tell such a fable, the striking documentary of Alyx Ayn Arumpac takes us into the heart of Manila where a human and social crisis is devouring the country from the inside out. Within the politics of persecution of President Duterte, living under the constant threat of denunciation and assassination, everyone risks being guilty of something. Floating across the night, carried by a breath as poetic as it is shattering, the director accompanies diverse groups of people caught in this circle of hell, seeking to heal its ills, to take inventory of the bodies, to release the prisoners. At the end of a street, caught by the charm of a young homeless child that she is then constantly trying to find again, Alyx Ayn Arumpac seems to see, there, a kind of hope, and perhaps this appeasement that the Aswang no longer manages to give her. A beautiful and necessary work.

Nadine Gomez
Filmmaker