In the Name of Law and Lawlessness

This fascinating film essay offers up a portrait of the crumbling social order in the Philippines today, especially the capital Manila. Behind the official structures and hierarchy lurks a system of useful acquaintance, tribal groupings, and private connections that offer those involved the possibility of breaking widely established rules without consequences. It is a world that exclusively serves the initiated while perniciously influencing the rest of society. In his third film, Pepe Diokno returns to burning issues in the contemporary Philippines; his artistically ambitious probe into disturbing social tendencies eliminates the border between fiction and documentary, thereby creating an unusually vibrant and convincing portrait of the capital and its inhabitants. More than an engaging moviemaking effort, this drama is an exceptionally personal and powerful treatise by a director attempting to see behind isolated acts of aggression that point to phenomena symptomatic of society at large. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)