Kalayaan

Filipino soldier Julian is stationed on an uninhabited island. Another character jokes that the island once beat Vietnam at basketball. In the first half of the film, Kalayaan follows the everyday life of the soldier. He sleeps, fishes, watches porn and masturbates. Occasionally, he listens to the radio, which reports on a rebellion against the president. His only companion is a turtle.
In the second half, the solider’s intense loneliness seems to be leavened by the arrival of two other soldiers. They talk about things like spirits and mermaids; conversations that reveal the start of the film – in which a mermaid gives a naked man a blow job – in a different light. Julian increasingly withdraws into his own world and loses his grip on reality.
Kalayaan makes beautiful use of the natural locations and takes its time to let us sense the boredom of Julian, played by Thai teenage idol Ananda Everingham.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•