A funeral becomes a circus, literally. Filipino bureaucracy meets family rot in this chaotic elegy.
Circus hijinks surround the barangay of Sta. Maria in the midst of an international murder sensation. Swanie, Sta. Maria’s barangay chair and a distant relative of the killer, tries to gain political points by staging a wake for the criminal-turned-celebrity. Meanwhile in faraway Manila, Joanna, Swanie’s runaway son, navigates his way through labyrinthine bureaucracy, to give a neighbor a proper burial. With these two unrelated deaths, estranged mother and son each bury the dead long shelved in their hearts. Amidst these unspoken family burials, the neighborhoods’ penchant for funeral fiestas, gossip and secrets, bizarre social events and the sheer mix of scandal and inebriation complete the picture of dying the Pinoy way.
Acting
Shamaine Buencamino's Swanie is deliciously, horribly watchable.
Direction
Arcenas turns provincial politics into absurdist theater.
Writing
Dialogue that stings like gossip at a funeral.
Director
Loy Arcenas
Shamaine Buencamino
Swanie
Rez Cortez
Budoy
Rener Concepcion
Endong
Paul Jake Paule
Winston
Antonette Garcia
Sally
Rolando Inocencio
Robinson
Gary Lim
Junior
Jelson Bay
Baboy
Angelita Raymundo
Melvi
Skyzx Labastilla
Taranta
Ces Aldaba
Jake
Lou Veloso
Renato
Lilia Cuntapay
Aling Isang
Mara Paulina Adlawan Marasigan
Girl in parlor
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'funeral fiesta' tradition—where Filipino wakes become social events with gambling, drinking, and gossip—is rarely depicted this unflinchingly on screen.
Loy Arcenas, primarily a theater director, structures the film like a three-act play with two parallel wakes that finally collide in emotional catharsis.
PH
