ASWANG

Manila in the first two years after President Rodrigo Duterte took office. His “war on drugs” leaves bodies night after night in the city’s poor districts; the perpetrators wear police badges, motorcycle helmets, or nothing at all. In “Aswang” (Philippines 2019), Alyx Ayn Arumpac follows people who must deal with the dead: a journalist who drives to the crime scenes, a forensic pathologist, a lay brother who accompanies the bereaved, and a street child whose parents are in prison and whose friends lie in the cemetery. The title refers to the monster of Philippine folklore that falls upon people at night – in the film, no one needs to invent it any more.

Arumpac filmed for three years, mostly at night, staying close to the people; the death toll the film cites ultimately stood at more than 30,000. “Aswang” premiered in 2019 at the IDFA documentary festival in Amsterdam, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize; it later screened at MoMA in New York, at True/False and at Cinéma du Réel in Paris. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2020 in the Berlinale World Cinema Fund section.