In the presence of Khavn & Achinette Villamor
Celso Ad. Castillo, 1982, Philippines
HD, color, Filipino (sub. English), 120’
For the good of his three daughters, a father isolates himself with them in the wilderness. There, he raises his offspring away from temptation, guided by the holy scriptures. Upon the death of the patriarch, the sisters are left to themselves and start to become aware of new sensations, seemingly linked to the presence of their neighbour, a shy and stuttering young farmer. Signed by the one often called the terrible child — or even the Messiah — of Pilipino cinema, incredible do it all, who has set his mark on more than four decades of local cinema, tackling all styles, Virgin People is a superb decadent fairy tale, a sort of visual cocktail, with incompatibly sulfuric and sweet fumes emanating from it.