Directed by Adolfo Alix, Jr. • Drama • With Anita Linda, Joem Bascon, Jason Abalos • 2008 • 90 minutes
It is Adela’s 80th birthday. A former radio personality, she lives on her own in the slums of Manila. Adela is surrounded by a sea of humanity and with it their problems, successes, and trivialities. While going through her daily chores, Adela gets swept up in the mundane and dramatic events of those around her.
She helps to deliver a child in front of a crowd of onlookers. She watches the residents of the slum organize a political rally. She prays in church and runs into an old colleague, now a successful TV presenter. She visits her son in prison. She even sits for a short time at a karaoke bar for an impromptu birthday party. Ultimately however, eating her birthday dinner alone, she watches the sun set over the Bay of Manila, contemplating a life of disappointment. Adela is about the quiet moments in life that can fill us with either joy or sorrow.
Up Next in Across Asia
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Though I Am Gone
Directed by Hu Jie • Documentary • 2007 • 68 minutes
Pioneering filmmaker Hu Jie uncovers the tragic story of a teacher beaten to death by her students during the Cultural Revolution.
In 1966, the Cultural Revolution exploded throughout China, as Mao's Red Guards persecuted suspected Rightists....
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Myanmar Diaries
Directed by Myanmar Film Collective • Documentary • 2023 • 70 minutes
MYANMAR DIARIES is comprised of short films by ten young anonymous Burmese filmmakers, combined with emotionally harrowing citizen journalism documenting the junta’s brutality, as well as courageous resistance to it.
The film...
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The Vow from Hiroshima
Directed by Susan Strickler • Documentary • 2020 • 77 minutes
THE VOW FROM HIROSHIMA is an intimate portrait of Setsuko Thurlow, a passionate, 85-year-old survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Her moving story is told through the lens of her growing friendship with a second generation surviv...
