Mila, a young woman living under her parents’ roof is pregnant and wants to get married. But her father, a violent and possessive retired policeman, is determined not to let her leave the family nest. Everything here is suffocating, the spectre of incest, the weight of a guilt-laden Catholicism, and even the layout of the place with a house full of shadowy corners and surrounded by barbed wire. And, of course, the perversion of a domestic tyrant whose ogre-like presence weighs heavily on each scene. Based on a news event, this chilling drama is also a political accusation, especially as what clearly emerges from behind the patriarch’s sullen features is the reviled face of the Marcos couple who at the time held the Philippines under their boot. AR
Restored print
