Rafael Manuel ‘s debut feature “ Filipinana ” is making its pitch at the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market as the international co-production enters advanced post-production.

The film, which expands on Manuel’s Silver Bear Jury Prize-winning short of the same name from the Berlin Film Festival, follows Isabel, a tee-girl at Manila’s Alabang Golf & Country Club who spends her days teeing up golf balls mere inches from swinging clubs. When she encounters the club president, Dr. Palanca, asleep in some bushes on the course, a brief connection sets her on a journey deeper into the country club’s world – and into what Manuel describes as “a cosmos that reflects the inherent structural violence of the Philippines.”

“Yes, the film is set on a golf course in the Philippines, but it could be set an

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