Insiang

“Instead of working in his ivory tower, the filmmaker is a citizen of the slums, of the streets, of the battlefields if need be.” Lino Brocka

Jealousy and violence take center stage in this claustrophobic melodrama, a tautly constructed character study set in the slums of Manila. Lino Brocka crafts an eviscerating portrait of an innocent daughter and her bitter mother as women scorned. Insiang leads a quiet life dominated by household duties, but after she is raped by her mother’s lover and abandoned by the young man who claims to care for her, she exacts vicious revenge. A savage commentary on the degradations of urban poverty, especially for women, Insiang was the first Philippine film ever to play at Cannes.

Brocka, working with his excellent director of photography, Conrado Baltazar, creates images of startling power, like that of bloody hands clutching in the void.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Intense, furious melodrama.

Richard Brody, New Yorker

Insiang is Othello set in the slums of Tondo, Manila, with an innocent angel transformed into Iago; the lust and ferocity of Brocka and O’Hara’s version is startling to see.

Noel Vera, Senses of Cinema

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