Art Events in Manila and Beyond

"BATHALA NA!"
The Soft Launch of www.khavndelacruz. com & the
Afterparty of the Kidlat Tahimik Retrospective

January 14 Wednesday
7pm to 1am

Mag:net Katipunan
(in front of Miriam College, beside Rustan’s
Supermarket)

Featuring:
Khavn De La Cruz
Tom Estrella Sr. & The Shadows
Norman Wilwayco
Donna Miranda
Roberto Nicolas
Angelo Suarez
Tengal
Earth Jazz Trio
Joel Toledo
Ledh
Taggu N'Dios
Arvie Bartolome
Roxlee
John Torres
J Luna
Joseph Longboy
Kidlat Tahimik

Hosted by VJ Kints On The Hauz

7 PM
Special Screening of “MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS”
(Maynila Sa Mga Pangil Ng Dilim)
This is not a film by KHAVN

Cited as “one of the 23 films to look out for this
year” in FILM COMMENT magazine (January/February
2009).
FILM COMMENT is published bimonthly by the Film
Society of Lincoln Center, New York, USA.

LINKS:
http://www.filmlinc .com/fcm/ jf09/terraincogn ita.htm
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=pOFmzLQgq3U

OLAF MOELLER, European Editor of FILM COMMENT:
Movie icon Bembol Roco walks the mean streets of
Manila as “Kontra Madiaga,” a character invented by
combining the actor’s two most celebrated
performances: innocent country bumpkin Julio Madiaga
from 1975’s Manila in the Claws of Light and
death-squad leader Commander Kontra of 1989’s Fight
for Us. Haunted by memories of loss assembled from
snippets from these and other Lino Brocka films,
Kontra’s soul is long dead from butchering resistance
fighters, but the Madiaga part of him continues to
search Orpheus-like for the girl for whom he came to
the capital. Shot from the hip in a single day and
shot through with video-quotes from film history, this
is conceptual minimalism povera at its most
politically edgy.

World Premiere, VIENNA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL:
A sturdy man with a dark expression follows a delicate
beauty, clad in innocent white clothes, through the
streets of Manila. In his attempt to keep her away
from the trash and vice of the metropolis, he becomes
a murderer. Sometimes he simply stands around with his
arms folded, observing people in the streets and
unleashing tirades of hatred in the form of an inner
monologue. Yet at the same time, he repeatedly
proceeds to horrible crimes, which he considers
himself chosen to commit.

SYNOPSIS
"Manila In The Fangs Of Darkness" follows Kontra
Madiaga, a soul lost in an urban Hell trying to find
his beloved Ligaya. Trapped not only by time and his
deeds, his past is also framed by film and the scenes
that he is doomed to revisit.

DIALOGUE EXCERPT
"How did I get here. Ligaya? I followed you. I'd
follow you anywhere. Even if I don't understand why we
have to go to these places? Are these the only places
we end up in? You made me believe there's a good world
out there. But is this all the world we deserve? These
lost, decrepit, hopeless, nowhere to go places. And
who am I to think I could save you from them? How many
times have we seen our story get told and retold? How
many times have we passed through here? Nothing
changes. I follow and I'm always too late. But I'd
still follow you. I'd follow you anywhere. And maybe
the next time the story gets retold, and it will,
maybe the next time I follow you, I'd have done enough
that I can change how it ends." -- KONTRA MADIAGA

www.kamiasroad. com/khavn

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