Kino Lorber has acquired distribution rights to Rafael Manuel’s feature debut “Filipiñana” after the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision.
The film will be released theatrically by Kino Lorber later this year, followed by a digital, educational and home video release.
Based on his 2020 short film of the same name, the movie follows a 17-year-old Ilokana from the rural north, who works at a posh country club outside Manila, “lining up golf balls for powerful men to drive into the verdant horizon.” But, the official synopsis reads, “something is rotting beneath the pristine fairways of the elite resort” and “the deeper she journeys into its most exclusive corners, the closer she gets to the violent truths of the club, her native Philippines, and her own past.”
In his positive review for TheWrap, critic Chase Hutchinson called the film “riveting” and “mesmerizing.”
The deal for “Filipiñana” was negotiated by Kino Lorber VP of Acquisitions Karoliina Dwyer and Austin Kennedy of Magnify.
“Kino Lorber brought Miguel Gomes’ Tabu and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth to North American audiences. It’s an honor to collaborate with a distributor so deeply committed to bold, international cinema on Filipiñana,” said director Rafael Manuel in a statement.
“Filipiñana is a cinematic miracle,” said Kino Lorber Chairman & CEO Richard Lorber. “I can’t find enough adjectives to praise it for embodying the future of art cinema. It’s an amalgamation of brilliant visual images, sound design, and choreography married with a poignant and potent, yet subtle, political statement. We couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce this stunning film to North American audiences.”
Developed and co-financed by Film4, “Filipiñana” is a Potocol, Ossian International, Epicmedia, Easy Riders Films, and Idle Eye production. The film is produced by Jeremy Chua, Alex Polunin, Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew, and Rafael Manuel; co-produced by Sam Chua Weishi, Nadia Turincev, and Omar El Kadi; and executive produced by Farhana Bhula for Film4, Jia Zhangke, Anthony C. Isais, Grace Mariel M. Isais, Maria Sophia Atayde-Marudo, Jossette C. Atayde, Sebastian Raeuber, and Francine Raeuber.