Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana, winner of the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at this year’s Sundance.
Executive produced by Jia Zhangke, the drama will get its European premiere at this week’s Berlinale and a North American theatrical release through Kino Lorber later this year, with digital, educational and home video releases to follow.
Manuel wrote, directed, produced and edited the feature, based on his 2020 short film of the same title. Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat and Nour Hooshmand star in the story of a teenager from the rural north of the Philippines who, while working at a country club outside Manila, discovers the violent truths of the club, her native country and her own past.
Film4 developed and co-financed the project, a Potocol, Ossian International, Epicmedia, Easy Riders Films and Idle Eye production. Producers are Jeremy Chua, Alex Polunin, Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew and Rafael Manuel. Sam Chua Weishi, Nadia Turincev and Omar El Kadi served as co-producers and the film was executive produced by Farhana Bhula for Film4, Jia, Anthony C Isais, Grace Mariel M Isais, Maria Sophia Atayde-Marudo, Jossette C Atayde, Sebastian Raeuber and Francine Raeuber.
Manuel commented: “Kino Lorber brought Miguel Gomes’ Tabu and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth to North American audiences. It’s an honour to collaborate with a distributor so deeply committed to bold, international cinema on Filipiñana.”
Kino Lorber chairman and CEO Richard Lorber said: “Filipiñana is a cinematic miracle. 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 audience.”
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