Lawas Kan Pinabli [Excerpt]

Background:

Lawas Kan Pinabli (Forever Loved) is a new feature-length experimental documentary film produced by Sine Caboloan Co.Ltd. through a cinema grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, a government agency in the Philippines under the Office of the President. Lawas Kan Pinabli is an independent film about the existential condition of migrant Filipino workers in the Middle East. Moreover, the film also aims to promote the Pangasinan language by using it prominently throughout the film.

Logline/Synopsis:

A neophyte migrant Filipino worker from the Pangasinan province in the northern Philippines arrives at a bustling city in the Middle East searching for his missing wife who first came to the Arab country three years ago. While searching for his wife at the temporary homes, workplaces, and watering holes of fellow Filipino expatriates, he meets eight Filipino migrant workers who share their story of living and survival in a foreign land. Along the journey he meets another lonely foreign worker, a beautiful Malaysian woman whom he has an affair.

Combining fiction and documentary specifically interviews of eight Filipino migrant workers along with voice-over narration of various texts translated in the Pangasinan language - selected passages from the Holy Bible, selected poetry about exile, and selected lines from classical noh plays, the film creates an intimate portrait of the Filipino diaspora in the Middle East. The film’s title “Lawas Kan Pinabli” is based from a popular folk love song in the Pangasinan province with the same title.