Director: Paul Alexander Morales
2008, Philippines, 100 min.
Just before the end of World War II, Americans start a systematic bombing of major Philippine cities in an attempt to destroy the occupying Japanese forces. The De La Torre family of Davao City in Mindanao flees from their home and live in the forest. In this remote area, a displaced Filipino family becomes acquainted with a group of occupying Japanese officers camped nearby. The family slowly develops a cordial relationship with the Japanese. When the De La Torre piano is brought into the forest, a special bond develops over the love of music. Who is friend? Who is foe? In the gray area between collaboration and resistance lays the day-to-day struggle for survival as well as for humanity. This war drama was inspired and based on true incidents in the lives of the director’s family.
