“Raya Martin's weather-beaten melodrama is one hallucinatory emotional hothouse.” - Time Out New York

With fake backdrops, overacting, deliberately rough effects and a black and white 1:33 aspect ratio, Independencia harks back to golden era of 1930s cinema to tell an earnest tale about a Filipino paradise lost, destroyed by American invaders. No less lush despite its low-fi aesthetic, Independencia manages to create a world both dreamlike and immensely original.

In homage to - or perhaps in critique of - the artifice of the 1930s Hollywood ‘talkies', prolific young filmmaker Raya Martin presents the second film (following A Short Film About the Indio Nacional) in his trilogy about the Filipino struggle for independence during the 19th Century.

Winner of the NETPAC Award at the 2009 Bangkok International Film Festival.