Filipino director Rafael Manuel presented his first feature film Filipiñana [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Rafael Manuel
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Cineuropa: What fascinates you about golf and golf clubs, and why did you chose this setting for your film?
Rafael Manuel: I think it’s a very politically and historically charged milieu for my country. The first golf courses in the Philippines were built on American military bases. So there’s a rich and violent colonial history tied to golf courses. There’s also a striking juxtaposition between the beautiful imagery of a golf course and the violence it is rooted in. Exploring these spaces through that lens was very interesting to me. You can see domination and power structures very clearly in this setting.

Do you see it as a microcosm of Philippine society?
Yes - and also not just Philippine society, but the world. There’s a trope that the more local you go, the more universal the theme becomes. If you think about golf, it’s a game that rewards inaction: the person who takes the fewest strokes wins. When you look at what’s happening in the world today, so much has to do with inaction - a lack of political action, a lack of personal action. Also, consider gentrification. The world is facing gentrification, and what is a golf course if not a gentrification of wild land? That’s something applicable not only to my country but globally.

Within the golf club environment, the heat can be better managed than outside it. Could you elaborate on the metaphor of the dying tree?
The subplot about the drought in the Philippines was very much based on real life. During location scouting - even earlier, when I was preparing the short film about seven years ago - my community was undergoing a water shortage. Yet when we visited golf courses, all the sprinklers were running constantly. That felt absurd, given the circumstances. As for the dying pine trees in the film, they are another allusion to colonial history. Pine trees are not native to the Philippines. But if you visit golf courses there, you’ll see many of them - they were brought by Americans to make the environment feel more like home.

Was it difficult to gain access for research and filming?
Yes, very difficult. These golf courses don’t really need the money we could offer for location fees, and their priority is always their members. Anything that disrupts them is unwelcome. We were only allowed to shoot on maintenance days. That created an interesting scheduling challenge. In total we had 40 shooting days, but we filmed at most three times a week, so the shoot stretched over a long period. I actually preferred that. On fast shoots you can get lost in the rush. Because we were forced to take our time, we could plan each shooting day very carefully.

Taking your time, in long takes and in the pace of the film, is a key element of Filipiñana.
People often comment on the aesthetic and pacing because the film is very stylised and heightened. But for me it isn’t style for its own sake; it’s a marriage of theme and form. Given the themes of inaction and the golf course environment, symmetrical wide shots felt appropriate. The pacing is also directly connected. You mentioned the heat - if you’ve ever been in 50°C heat, it’s very hard to move. You feel almost paralysed. That physical paralysis reinforces the inaction that is central to the film; a lack of mobility both at the top and at the bottom.

You use a song at several moments, from Los Índios Tabajaras. How does it resonate with you?
I love Los Indios Tabajaras. There are many cultural parallels between the Philippines and Latin America. Although we’re in Southeast Asia, culturally we share a lot with Latin America due to Spanish and later American colonial history. I’m also very influenced by Lucrecia Martel, who used the song “Siempre en mi corazón” in Zama [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lucrecia Martel
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Filipiñana is an international co-production between several countries. Was this a challenge?
Fortunately, we were not obliged to shoot in all of the participating countries. That was particularly important to me, as it allowed me to work with the same crew I had collaborated with on the short film of the same title. The main character was also played by the same actress Jorrybell Agoto.

This is your first feature film. How would you describe the current filmmaking landscape in the Philippines?
We produce a huge number of films every year. There is a strong commercial industry, but also a vibrant underground and independent scene. You have internationally known filmmakers like Lav Diaz, Brillante Mendoza, and Kidlat Tahimik. But there is also a younger generation emerging now, approaching cinema in very different ways. They are still finding their own voice - much like the Philippines itself, still negotiating its identity.