A young cell phone snatcher kills its owner and is subsequently arrested. While the grandmother of the thief tries to raise money for his bond, the grandmother of the young victim tries to raise money for his funeral and seek justice for his murder. New Wave Filipino Director Brilliante Mendoza whose 2009 film KINATAY had shocked us with its casual violence, this time tears through the poverty that pervades Filipino society to depict a grim world that blurs the line between right and wrong and challenges conventional morality. In terms of treatment, Mendoza’s hand-held long takes make the world it depicts as palpable as possible; its sense of realism, verging on the documentary is accentuated by the performance of all its actors.
GRANDMOTHER, also called LOLA (The Philippines, 2009) is another masterly stroke by Brilliante Mendoza. Streaming on MUBI.
Check out the trailer here:
Ranjan Das is a Mumbai based filmmaker & faculty.