Rafael Manuel spent seven to eight years developing his debut feature, “Filipinana,” about a teenage girl working at Manila’s elite country club, years before HBO’s “The White Lotus” turned luxury resort satire into luxury television gold.
“White Lotus is one of the biggest franchises of all time, so I can definitely see the comparison, but I wouldn’t say it was a direct influence at all,” Manuel told Variety ahead of the film’s European premiere at the Berlinale. “Formally, I think they’re very different. There’s also the fact that White Lotus takes a Western protagonist and has to do more with the East.”
The film won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at Sundance, and Kino Lorber acquired North American distribution rights.
Set against the backdrop of intense heat and drought, the story follows Isabel, a 17-year-old from the rural north who takes a job at an upscale country club on the outskirts of Manila. As the newcomers explore the facility’s pristine grounds, they encounter a number of elite patrons, all of whom are tended to by the club’s servile staff. As Isabel tries to return the golf club she left behind to the patriarchal board president, she delves deep into the resort’s restricted areas and uncovers dark realities about the property, the Philippines, and her own history.
Manuel’s approach to narrative structure is based on literary and philosophical theory. “[Claude]Lévi-Strauss, one of my favorite writers, talks a lot about two kinds of thinking: there’s poetic thinking, and then there’s grammatical thinking and synthetic thinking. And I think in today’s world, a lot of people prioritize grammar and syntax over poetic thinking. And for me, I was very interested in developing a story and a plot that balanced both and actually gave more weight to poetic thinking,” he says.
Directors distinguish between two types of clarity in filmmaking. “There’s narrative and narrative clarity, there’s plot clarity, but there’s also emotional clarity. And for me, I think emotional clarity is much more important, because like in a Hollywood movie, for example, everything depends so much on the story and the plot. Plot points 1 As soon as you miss something, the whole thing falls apart. On the other hand, if you focus on emotional clarity, then even if people miss certain plot points and things, they still stay grounded in the movie because what’s clear is what the characters are feeling and what the world is making you feel.”
Manuel’s executive producer and mentor, Chinese writer Jia Jianku, helped shape the filmmaker’s approach. Manuel was the last apprentice of the Rolex Arts Initiative, where he spent two years working closely with Gia. “In The World, Gia tells the story while the city is being demolished in the background,” Manuel says. “What I try to do on the golf course as well is bring the past, present and future of the Philippines and the world into that very time setting and that setting.”
Beyond film technique, Manuel values the personal insight gained from long-term instruction. “I was able to spend a lot of time with Gia between shooting and editing, and I was able to spend a lot of personal time with him, and just get an insight into his world and how he lives his day-to-day life between films. That’s what we make movies about. We make movies about life and how we live our lives and how we want to live our lives.”
For Manuel, the golf club setting serves a special purpose in examining contemporary Philippine society. “I think we just wanted to make the violence more accessible,” Manuel says. “I’m sorry, but I think a lot of contemporary Filipino films exoticize the poverty and violence that exists in our country, so I think that audiences who have no connection to these environments that are depicted can easily feel that they are not responsible or have nothing to do with the violence that is shown on screen.”
His approach reframes organized violence in more universal terms. “My real goal was to reframe this violence and make it a little more relatable to a more universal audience, and to talk about how you don’t have to be a murderer or a rapist to participate in this kind of violence, just living quietly and passively within an inherently violent system is enough,” he says.
The film explores the tension between ambition and belonging without offering easy solutions. “I was really trying not to give an answer, because I don’t have an answer,” he says. “I think in today’s world it’s very easy to become pessimistic and fall into the trap of doing nothing. There are so many forces at work that nothing we do will change anything. I want to remind people that, like Isabelle in the film, even the smallest actions have the power to create something new.”
As “Filipinana” prepares for its Berlinale debut, Manuel hopes to transport audiences from the winter chill to the film’s stifling tropical heat. “We made a very sensual film. We hope that we can bring a little bit of heat from Manila to Berlin. I mean, it’s going to be very cold in Berlin, just like it was in Park City. And I think it’s very poetic in a way that ‘Filipinana’ is shown in Berlin in the middle of winter. I really hope that we can bring this heat and this humidity. That’s the hallmark of this film, and it’s a big responsibility of this film,” he said. ”
