Writing
Lola is an aswang. In Philippine folklore, an aswang is a combination of vampire, witch, and shape-shifter. She is hired as an actress by a very ambitious and demanding director who exploits her supernatural abilities to save on production cost.
An editorial cartoon-like satire of a truth-seeking journalist up against a crooked politician and his private army. Like Pinocchio's nose, the newsman's pencil acts as a barometer of the lies being fed by the unfinching politico, as they play a game of cat vs. mouse, truth vs. lies.
A boy looks into a magical microscope and discovers a world of strange creatures. Upon seeing the boy's huge eye, the creatures begin to worship him. An ambitious evil emperor oppresses and forces the other creatures to build a tower so that he can get hold of the eye.
Diego, a prisoner, is visited nightly by a specter claiming to be the keeper of a hidden treasure. He confides his nightmares to a fellow inmate, Tiago. But the untrustworthy Tiago tells the Kapitan who decides he wants the treasure for himself.
An extremely talented ghost has just finished a literary masterpiece. Unfortunately, an ambitious vampire, Count Roach, sneaks into his haunted house and steals his work. The ghost confronts the vampire and battles with him. Using only his wit, imagination and talent, will the ghost succeed in getting his masterpiece back?
Based on a painting by Rembrandt, “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” the film is a meditation on the complex relations between fathers and sons. In two parallel stories, a son’s desire to be free is shown as he struggles from his father’s oppressive domination. This is shown on the one hand by a boy who watches over his father in his sickbed wishing to free himself from his father’s domineering presence; and on the other, a biblical Isaac who frees himself from Abraham’s intent to kill his own son.
