by Alyx Ayn Arumpac
Since Rodrigo Dutertes was elected president of the Philippines, the “Aswang”, evil creatures of mythology, have entered the streets of Manila. In an alleged fight against drugs, he issued a carte blanche to police officers who now roam the poorest districts of the capital killing small-time dealers, drug addicts and other innocent people, while the big drug barons remain untouched. Director Alyx Ayn Arumpac follows a handful of people into the city’s nocturnal underworld: a journalist, a forensic doctor, a missionary and a street boy whose parents are in prison and friends in the cemetery. This poetically told documentary is a shocking testimony to the moral bankruptcy of a regime.