Feature – Philippines / UK Première


Click here to view a trailer for Amok.

Showing @ Filmhouse 3, Thu 21 Jun @ 19.45

Lawrence Fajardo / Philippines / 2011 / 83 min

Welcome to Pasay, a sea of humankind in the heart of Manila, filled with colour, smells, vehicles and voices. With Tagalog and Visaya languages mixed with English and Spanish, the street vendors, criminals, prostitutes, students, office workers, taxi drivers and thousands of others make their way or make their living.

Lawrence Fajardo’s Amok doesn’t attempt at a narrative, instead the director takes snapshots of the lives of those working or passing through: the nagging sister bullying her grown-up brother, the fading action hero living on booze and cheap sex, the street hustlers gambling away their lives and the young basketball star worried if he’ll make the team. That these characters are brought together at the end is less important than the glimpses you get into their lives. Each scene is like an overheard conversation. You only have a fragment to play with, but even in such a small time-frame you can piece together some of their story. It’s a shame, then, that Amok ends with a brutal linking device which feels tacked on. It’s the film’s only failing and it’s a great pity because it adds a bland flavour to what, up until then, had been a spicy and delicious mix.