Kino Lorber acquires North American rights to Rafael Manuel’s Sundance and Berlin selection 'Filipiñana'
“A masterwork…with Filipiñana, Manuel opens new vistas in the future of the cinema.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“An invigorating dose of arch formalism in a sea of mainstream sincerity, this is the kind of movie that asks for the viewer’s attention…the angle of a golf club can evoke suspense, a piece of fruit on the ground can feel like a tragedy, and a casual glance can take your breath away.”
– Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
"Darkly comic, visually inventive...cinematically builds into a scathing account of inequality, showing how women like Isabel are condemned to work in a place whose atmosphere is closer to that of a colonial plantation than a cushy country club.”
– Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Rafael Manuel’s surreal and stylized debut feature Filipiñana, executive produced by Jia Zhangke. Winner of the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, the film will next make its European premiere at the Berlinale on February 15. Filipiñana will be released theatrically by Kino Lorber later this year followed by a digital, educational, and home video release.
Based on his 2020 award-winning short film of the same title, Filipiñana is written, directed, produced, and edited by Rafael Manuel. The film stars Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, and Nour Hooshmand.
Amid stifling heat and pervasive drought, Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto), a 17-year-old Ilokana from the rural north, works at a posh country club outside Manila, lining up golf balls for powerful men to drive into the verdant horizon. New to the job, she wanders the immaculate grounds sampling its luxuries as members, including an industrialist and his expatriate niece, the club president and his pampered wife, and a slew of Chinese tourists, engage in a complex dance with the club’s doting and subservient staff. But something is rotting beneath the pristine fairways of the elite resort, as Isabel discovers when she tries to return a mislaid golf club to its patriarchal director, Dr. Palanca (Teroy Guzman). The deeper she journeys into its most exclusive corners, the closer she gets to the violent truths of the club, her native Philippines, and her own past.
The deal for Filipiñana was negotiated by Kino Lorber VP of Acquisitions Karoliina Dwyer and Austin Kennedy of Magnify.
“Kino Lorber brought Miguel Gomes’ Tabu and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth to North American audiences. It’s an honor to collaborate with a distributor so deeply committed to bold, international cinema on Filipiñana,” said director Rafael Manuel.
“Filipiñana is a cinematic miracle," said Kino Lorber Chairman & CEO Richard Lorber. "I can’t find enough adjectives to praise it for embodying the future of art cinema. It's an amalgamation of brilliant visual images, sound design, and choreography married with a poignant and potent, yet subtle, political statement. We couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce this stunning film to North American audiences.”
Developed and co-financed by Film4, Filipiñana is a Potocol, Ossian International, Epicmedia, Easy Riders Films, and Idle Eye production. The film is produced by Jeremy Chua, Alex Polunin, Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew, and Rafael Manuel; co-produced by Sam Chua Weishi, Nadia Turincev, and Omar El Kadi; and executive produced by Farhana Bhula for Film4, Jia Zhangke, Anthony C. Isais, Grace Mariel M. Isais, Maria Sophia Atayde-Marudo, Jossette C. Atayde, Sebastian Raeuber, and Francine Raeuber.