Rafael Manuel

Filipiniana.

by Rafael Manuel.

It premiered at Sundance Film Festival.

2026, where it won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision.

[upbeat music] The new drama Filipiniana follows a teenage girl who's just started working at an upscale resort in Manila.

It's the first feature from Filipino writer-director Rafael Manuel, and it won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

It's now playing in select theaters, and our film critic Justin Chang has this review.

The few weeks or so that stretch between late August and early September are generally thought of as the doldrums of the movie release calendar.

Yet there are always new films worth seeking out, usually flying just under the radar.

You might not have heard of the terrific new movie Filipiniana, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

It's in theaters now, and it marks the arrival of a remarkable talent, a Filipino writer and director named Rafael Manuel.

In a way, Filipiniana is an ideal thing to watch in a nice, cool theater at the end of a brutally hot summer.

And the more she absorbs, the more sinister the club begins to seem.

Now, Filipiniana is the feature debut of Rafael Manuel, and it's in theaters now.

Bhawani, I'm gonna start with you.

What do we make of this film?

And it's so subtle, but it also uses a lot of surrealist imagery.

Hmm.

You know, it's almost hypnotic, some of the things that, like, the way that Rafael Manuel positions things or, like, uses his camera to create that still life.

Mm-hmm.

It is time for Golden Brick Spotting.

Filipiniana is the feature debut from director Raphael Manuel.

It debuted at this year's Sundance, and it opens in limited release this weekend, including in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Set at a country club in the Philippines, it's about a young woman, Jorie-Bell Agoto's Isabel, and her curious interest in the club's president.

The new drama Filipinanya follows a teenage girl who's just started working at an upscale resort in Manila.

It's the first feature from the Filipino writer-director Rafael Manuel, and it won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

It's now playing in select theaters, and our film critic Justin Chang has this review.

The few weeks or so that stretch between late August and early September are generally thought of as the doldrums of the movie release calendar.

Yet there are always new films worth seeking out, usually flying just under the radar.

You might not have heard of the terrific new movie Filipinanya, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

It's in theaters now, and it marks the arrival of a remarkable talent, a Filipino writer and director named Rafael Manuel.

In a way, Filipinanya is an ideal thing to watch in a nice cool theater at the end of a brutally hot summer.