AN KUBO SA KAWAYANAN (Alvin Yapan, 2015)
*Official selection, 2015 World Premieres Film Festival, Filipino New Cinema section Alvin Yapan has explored the supernatural with "Ang Panggagahasa kay Fe" (The Rapture of Fe), the subliminal with "Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa" (Dance of Two Left Feet), the marriage of the mythical and the religious with "Debosyon" (Devotion) and the psychological with "Anino ng Kahapon" (Shadows of the Past). His latest film "An Kubo Sa Kawayanan" (The House in the Bamboo Grove), surprisingly veers away from his usual exploration of folklore and literature, as its story lives within the confines of the mundane, the ordinary, and the calming silence. Perhaps "Kubo" is the antithesis to Yapan's film canon- a meditation on the simplicity of things, stripped away of all of the modern world's noise. In here, we find Michelle (Mercedes Cabral), an embroiderer living alone in a nipa hut tucked deep in the woods. She fi...