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Powerful human dramas, jaw-dropping visions of Manila’s shanty towns, vibrant colour photography, tight shorts, big hair and loud shirts – why have Lino Brocka’s melodramas been unseen for so long?

Filipino director Lino Brocka, who died in a car crash in 1991 aged 52, used elemental stories to highlight the harsh social realities of life in his home country.

In Manila in the Claws of Light, Julio (Bembol Roco), a young provincial fisherman, comes to the metropolis in search of his girlfriend Ligaya (Hilda Koronel). He drifts through a series of jobs, making the friends who can help him in his epic quest, which you know from the get go is bound to end badly.

In Insiang, a young woman (Hilda Koronel) is living with her mother. When the mother moves in her younger lover, tensions escalate, leading to rape and murder.

Both films feel fatalistic in that they are concerned with the limited options for action that present themselves to the protagonists. The brutal slaughterhouse opening to Insiang does not bode well for a happy ending. The limiting factor is of course the milieu, the crushing poverty of the shanty towns in Manila.

2xBD50, 2xDVD9 | 1080p AVC, PAL | 02:06:22 + 01:34:04
Language: Tagalog
Subtitles: English
Genre: Drama, Mystery

Extras:

Manila in the Claws of Light:
• "Manila... A Filipino Film" 1975 documentary short by Mike de Leon (23:01)
• Manila stills and collections gallery (4:40)
• "Visions Cinema: Film in the Philippines" 1983 documentary by Ron Orders (40:12)

Insiang:
• "Signed: Lino Brocka" 1987 documentary by Christian Blackwood (83:30)
• "The Guardian Lecture" Lino Brocka in conversation with Tony Rayns in 1982 (audio only, plays over the film) (62:08)

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