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Aswang

Alyx Ayn Arumpac

Sincerely Yours, the Philippines Film
The film still shows a protest where several women wear white headscarves printed with crying faces, surrounded by a crowd.
© Filmstill Aswang
The film still captures a night procession of barefoot, hooded men with their upper bodies wrapped in ropes. Palm leaves adorn their hoods.
© Filmstill Aswang
The film still captures a night procession of barefoot, hooded men with their upper bodies wrapped in ropes. Palm leaves adorn their hoods.
© Filmstill Aswang
The film still shows the overcrowded courtyard of a prison, with numerous inmates packed closely on the ground and upper levels.
© Filmstill Aswang
Portrait of Alyx Arumpac. She is wearing a white top and has long, loose hair.
Sincerely Yours, the Philippines Film

Aswang

Alyx Ayn Arumpac

In the Philippines, “Aswang” stands for witches, vampires, ghosts and werewolves – a collection of evil spirits that play an important role in myths and popular films. However, when President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, they also began appearing in real life on the streets of Manila. As part of Duterte’s drug war, death squads have shot, tortured and kidnapped tens of thousands of drug users, dealers and innocent bystanders. From 23 September, Duterte will have to answer for “crimes against humanity” in preliminary proceedings before the International Criminal Court.

In her award-winning documentary “Aswang”, director Alyx Ayn Arumpac accompanies a group of people whose lives are intertwined with the increasing violence: a journalist who rebels against lawlessness, a forensic doctor, a missionary who comforts the bereaved, and a homeless boy whose parents are in prison and whose friends lie in the cemetery.

Followed by an artist talk with director Alyx Ayn Arumpac.

Infos
  • Duration Film: 85 min.
  • Language: Tagalog with English subtitles
  • Followed by a discussion with the director
  • Country of production: Philippines, Germany, Qatar, Norway, France, Denmark
  • Year of production: 2019
Sponsors and Supporters

Director: Alyx Ayn Arumpac
Screenplay: Alyx Ayn Arumpac
Cast: Giancarlo Abrahan (narration), Anne Fabini (narration), Ciriaco Santiago III, Orly Fernandez, Vincent Go, Ezra Acayan, J.S., C.P., C.S.
Producers: Armi Rae Cacanindin, Alyx Ayn Arumpac

“Sincerely Yours, the Philippines” is a project of the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Philippines. Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation through the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Funded by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Goethe-Institut, and “Philippines - Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025.”

Biography

Alyx Ayn Arumpac is a filmmaker from the southern Philippines whose work traces the entanglements of politics, memory, resistance and state violence. Her debut feature, Aswang (2019), about the Philippine drug war, won 25 international awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and is the first documentary to win Best Film at both Gawad Urian and the Filipino Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (FAMAS). She is an alumna of the DocNomads European Master Course in Documentary Directing, the University of the Philippines Film Institute, and the Philippine High School for the Arts.