Metro Manila
Dir: Sean Ellis
2013
****
Sean Ellis's Metro Manila is a heartbreaking story of one family's struggle to work and live in the Philippines notoriously difficult City. It is a fictional story but much of what the family experience is a reality for many. People are pushed to impossible limits and the Dog eat Dog mentality of the place is hard to imagine. Sean Ellis and the performers visualise this perfectly. The story however does get a tiny bit contrived towards the end and as much as I think the ending was effective, it was predictable and would have preferred something a little bit cleverer. The real success of the film is the portrayal of the City as an entity. It's like the City somehow has brought the worst out in people, mainly because the City was built overnight and didn't have the same time to develop as many. A frightening realism with an even more frightening conclusion, bold cinema to be celebrated.