“Paano nila natago sa isang bayan ang sarili nilang kasaysayan?”
First line on its first seconds, the trailer for Cinemalaya 2025 official entry ‘Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra Ang Kasaysayan,’ not only piques interest but also hits home.
Watch the trailer below:
The film is directed by multi-awarded Filipino filmmaker, playwright, and educator whose work has been recognized across film, theater, and literature. His film Ang Duyan ng Magiting won the Special Jury Prize and Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Acting at the 2023 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, was nominated for seven Gawad Urian Awards, including Best Picture, and was one of seven films shortlisted as the Philippines’ official entry to the 96th Academy Awards. His earlier film Utopia (2019), which he wrote and directed for the Cinema One Originals Film Festival, earned him nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay and received the Special Jury Prize.
The film is led by award-winning actors Dolly de Leon, Jojit Lorenzo, Zanjoe Marudo and Mylene Dizon, also starring Anna Luna and Nanding Josef, with the special participation of Frances Makil-Ignacio and Andoy Ranay.
The trailer is brave and bold in tackling relevant and even controversial issues today. From Martial Law, the unending corruption in the government, extra-judicial killings, and even our trouble with forgiving the people who keep on destroying our country, forgetting how they corrupted us, and put them back in power.
It’s not an easy watch, but it’s something that we need now. The film feels like a cry for help from the Philippines as a whole. That this is what’s happening if we keep on electing the same people, if we keep on letting them free, not demanding accountability. You can feel those frustrations just from the film’s trailer.
These are the stories that some disregard because they are easily tagged as propagandists, but these stories are real, these film, while maybe fictional, reflects stories or situations of the Filipinos today.
I’m intrigued by how they will flesh out these stories. And knowing Dustin Celestino’s works, the film can be interpreted differently, but the politics in the film will have a say in society. I hope people will watch it and reflect on it, because the trailer itself builds the mood of pain, anger and hope.
Watch ‘Habang Nilalamon Ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan’ on 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟯–𝟭𝟮, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 at 𝗥𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗽𝗲𝘁 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘀 – 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗶-𝗟𝗮 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘇𝗮, 𝗚𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘄𝗮𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝘆𝗮𝗹𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘀.