Tanabata's Wife

Living near the US Clark Air Base, Corazon de la Cruz dreams of a better life in America… until the unspeakable happens.

One stormy night, in a sea side village, a childless couple finds a mysterious beautiful woman in the beach without any consciousness. The next day, the girl wakes up and introduces herself as Isabel.

100 years after the defeat of the local troops under Gen. Miguel Malvar in the Philippine-American War, the people of a Batangueño town would have lost its character typified by the Tagalog term "barako", meaning brave or courageous. Much worse, they have become subservient to their corrupt leaders who have been taking advantage of their ignorance and poverty. But they are slowly swayed to a new liberal direction by a small coffee club called "barakuhan" whose organizers see in it a reawakening of their native courage.

Teresa (Rustica Carpio) has worked for the Bautista family since she was seventeen. She was the nanny of siblings Stella, Vince and Andre (Jackie Lou Blanco, Bobby Andrews and Ryan Agoncillo), and their mother. The three have all moved abroad in their adulthood, but all reunite back at home with the passing of their mother. With no one left to stay in the country, it is decided that all of their properties will be sold, including the house they grew up in. But they are faced with the problem of what to do with the elderly Teresa, who has no money saved, and little contact with her relatives.

A World War II submarine commander finds himself stuck with a damaged sub, a con-man executive officer, and a group of army nurses.

The film splits itself between two timelines. In 2006, Ada is basing her thesis on a massacre that occurred twenty years prior in a village called Acacia. Her mother Cecilia was part of a fact-finding mission into a massacre, and Ada’s inquiries bring up her history as a member of the NPA. The other timeline traces the relationship of Ka Felix and Ka Jimmy, two rebels who fall in love, despite the movement’s laws against such a pairing.

The long-standing conflict between the military forces and the rebel group Abu Sayaff has severely ravaged the poor town of Patikul in Sulu. Residents have become so accustomed to the armed clashes, that reports of kidnappings and recruitment of young Tausugs to join the rebel groups already became normal news to them. However, Amman, a 33 year old coffee farmer in Sitio Kan-Ague, continues to believe that there is still hope for their town. Amman believes that educating his children would change their present situation.

Sarah is a nurse at a Public Maternity Hospital. The hospital is abuzz with pregnant mothers of all shapes and sizes in different stages of labor. The hospital is short on staff on Christmas Day so Sarah is forced to put in a double shift. Sarah observes the women coming and going in her ward, noting who is a first-timer and who is a veteran. Meanwhile, the wards are overcrowded : two women and their babies sharing single beds while those in labor are spilling unto the hallways. Sarah takes these all in stride, her heart and mind laboring over her own personal pains.

A coming of age story about Isabel’s lessons and realizations on life and death as a funeral videography intern. Due to her family situation, Isabel is cynical and skeptical of everything that comes her way. When she enters the I-libings for her required college internship, she sees it as the worst internship her college adviser could suggest to her. Later as she accumulates her required hours, she realizes that the company is not just a place where videographers make money out of other people’s misfortunes but is a place where the dead and the grieving receive special attention. It all comes full circle when Isabel is faced with an unusual family tragedy. Isabel realizes that her internship might have been just 200 hours, but the lessons that the I-libings left her would last a lifetime.

Mabuti accidentally finds a stash of money that could bring an end to her family’s financial problems: is the solution that simple or is it loaded with complications?

In a quiet, rural Filipino village, sibling rivalry continues through adulthood for two sisters and finally tears their family apart.

A 12-year old Anita falls in love with the new woman in town; years later, a girlhood crush blossoms during the Fiesta of Santa Clara in Obando, Bulacan.

It picks up where the series left off in its final episode as the relationship of Joee and Joey moves on to the next level. Joee is about to give birth while Joey remains in love with her and tries to become a responsible foster father.

Isabel Reyes (Rhian Ramos) is an infamous soap opera villain in the country. Everyone simply loathes Isabel which makes her the most condemned personality in the world of television. But by some weird twist of fate, Isabel's life turns upside down when she encounters a near-death accident. The wicked antagonist experiences a sudden change of heart and being the top kontrabida of her soap opera, Isabel couldn't just deliver her heartlessness and cruelty in front of the camera. Her over-the-top villainous persona disappears and she finds herself powerless to kick and slap the lead star. Isabel's show hits a major ratings slump and the network advises her to take a break from work with hopes of reigniting her passion. To solve her dilemma, Isabel seeks the help of the biggest kontrabida icon in the country, no less than Ms. Bella Flores. She finds her on YouTube and says that for Isabel to get herself back, she needs to find the person who hurt her the most.

Orphan Carding befriends Army Captain Samuel Corazon, who’s stationed in his town to root out the remaining Huk guerrillas. At the dance hall, Corazon woos dancer Lauriana, and they soon move in together. The two become sort of surrogate parents for the orphan Carding, with Corazon teaching him the ways of men. But the soldier has a dark side, and Carding becomes witness to the violence occurring in their home, and a heinous act committed by the soldier on his common-law wife.

A woman whose whole life is her art, but when she loses it she goes into a self-exile, only to be, hopefully, reinvigorated by a young boy daring to bring it all back.

When it is time for her to give birth, Andrea, a communist insurgent seeks refuge in the city to her best friend Joyce. When Andrea's husband is reportedly killed, she temporarily leaves her son to their care. But before Andrea could return to her baby, she is arrested by the military. With no news of Andrea's whereabouts and presuming her to have been dead, the childless couple decided to keep the child and bring him to the United States. Upon returning to the country after seven years for a visit, Andrea confronts them and tries to claim his son back.

Powerful but ill-stricken business woman, Vilma Santos navigates her complicated relationship with her caregiver, Angel Locsin and her estranged son, Xian Lim in this story about acceptance, love and forgiveness.

The title “Kamera Obskura” is a Filipino spelling of the latin “Camera Obscura” which simply means “dark room”. The film’s concept adheres to formalist cinema, where the filmmaker’s thesis is to make a semblance of a vintage film seemingly produced sometime in the late 1920s to early 1930s in the Philippines. The thesis is to conjure up a film from a period that did not really exist in Philippine cinema’s historical cultural heritage as we know it, such as a pseudo-expressionist / experimental Filipino cinema of the silent film era. It is a film within a film. The narrative plays with the idea of a retro-futurist world where a prisoner locked away in a dark chamber for over two decades only sees the reality of the world outside through the small hole in his cell, which projects an image of the city on his wall, the phenomenon of the “camera obscura”.

Every night, Nana Lusing lies on her bed sleepless because she sees a dark figure looming in her room. Who is this shadow? Is this the devil? Her late husband? A manifestation of her anxieties? Or simply a figment of her imagination?