“Of the classics from Philippine cinema's Second Golden Age, I think that ‘KISAPMATA’ is the work that has dated the least, with its continuing psychological and social relevance and timelessly spare and lucid mise en scene." -Gil Quito
“Easily Mike de Leon’s masterpiece and in my book one of the greatest of Filipino films.” -Noel Vera
Opens February 14 | One Sunday in November, Mila (Charo Santos) announces to her father Dadang (Vic Silayan), a retired police officer, that she is pregnant, asking for permission to marry her co-worker Noel (Jay Ilangan). Tension mount as Dadong's unreasonable expectations for a dowry are not met and he exhibits an increasingly authoritarian streak. The couple marries and soon, Mila's father begins a game of exclusion and manipulation in the hopes of reasserting control over his kin. Based on the true crime reportage "The House on Zapote Street" penned by Nick Joaquin, Mike De Leon's KISAPMATA, beautifully restored in 4K by L'Immagine Ritrovata, is a stunning example of psychological horror; a film that meticulously tighten the noose around its characters' necks until the outcome feels inevitable — culminating in a brutal, unflinching portrait of the horrors of patriarchy at its most pathological.
Awards & Nominations
1982 Cannes Directors' Fortnight Official Selection
TWO by MIKE DE LEON | February 6–17
In 1982, renowned Filipino director, producer, and cinematographer Mike De Leon was in the enviable position of having two films in the Director's Fortnight competition at Cannes in the same year. Like much of his work from the 1970s and 80s both films, BATCH '81 and KISAPMATA, deal in themes of brutality and control. Unabashed metaphors for the Marcos dictatorship's violence on the body and the psyche of the Filipino people, both films faced censorship upon their release and have since been restored to their original versions.
In addition to being consistently political, De Leon’s filmography is also exceptionally diverse in genre. De Leon’s grandmother Narcisa “Sisang” De Leon founded one of the first major Filipino studios, LVN Pictures. Growing up observing the comings-and-goings of the first Golden Age of Philippine cinema in the fifties and sixties, De Leon would go on to usher in the Second Golden Age in the seventies and eighties alongside peers such as Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal and Marilou Diaz-Abaya. In 1975, De Leon produced and shot Brocka’s groundbreaking MANILIA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT before his own debut the following year with supernatural horror film ITIM, which launched both his career and that of actor Charo Santos.
Related Event: BATCH '81 - February 6–12
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu