by Alex Billington
July 15, 2026
Source: YouTube
“Some of those balls are worth more than what we make in a day.” Kino Lorber has revealed the official trailer for Filipiñana, an indie film from Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel making his feature directorial debut. This first premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, as a carefully constructed, extra dark satire about the elite & wealthy being rotten. Teen Isabel’s attraction to Dr. Palanca at her golf club job outside of Manila in the Philippines turns dark as she uncovers violence beneath the club’s facade, and discovers its disturbing connection from the past. Exec produced by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, this Sundance award-winning debut announces writer / director Rafael Manuel as a major new voice in international cinema. Filipiñana stars Jorrybell Agoto as Isabel, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman as Dr. Palanca, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, and Nour Houshmand. Sundance adds that the film paints “a scathing portrait of class disparities and post-colonial power structures in ways that are both quiet & unsettling.” Yep this sounds good – and it looks really good, too, with some slick cinematography to accent all the horrible things going on within. This looks like it’s a must watch for cinema geeks of all kinds.
Here’s the official US trailer (+ poster) for Rafael Manuel’s film Filipiñana, direct from KL’s YouTube:
Isabel, a 17-year-old from the rural north of the Philippines, works at a posh country club outside Manila. Amid stifling heat & pervasive drought, she lines up golf balls for powerful men to drive into the carefully manicured verdant horizon. Between shifts, she wanders the immaculate grounds, sampling its luxuries & exploring its liminal spaces. The club’s members, including an industrialist and his niece, the president & his pampered wife, a slew of Chinese tourists, engage in a complex dance with the doting & subservient staff. But something is rotting beneath the pristine fairways of the elite resort, as Isabel discovers when she tries to return a mislaid golf club to its patriarchal director, Dr. Palanca. The deeper she journeys into its most exclusive corners, the closer she gets to the violent truths of this club, and her native Philippines.
Filipiñana is written and directed by Filipino indie filmmaker Rafael Manuel, making his first feature film after a few other shorts previously. Produced by Jeremy Chua, Alex Polunin, Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew, Nadia Turincev, Omar El Kadi, Rafael Manuel. This initially premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and it also played at the Berlin, San Francisco, Sydney, Karlovy Vary Film Festivals. Kino Lorber debuts Manuel’s Filipiñana film in select US theaters starting August 28th, 2026 coming up soon.
