A hybrid film that merges a televised family saga with a political thriller, Citizen Jake touched on an burning set of circumstances at the time it was released. Ejected from the programming of the Metro Manila Film Festival in 2017, Mike De Leon lost no time in pointing out the selection committee’s compromised stance on a film that denounced the structural control of the political apparatus by the powerful families linked to the Marcos, and the undermining of the country’s democracy under Duderte’s governance. De Leon wrote the script with Noel Pascuale and Atom Aurollo, himself a journalist and soon taken on as the film’s lead actor. The lucidity of Citizen Jake makes it a sadly premonitory film. JB
French Premiere
