Cain at Abel

Once upon a time during the Marcos era, two brothers are born into a wealthy landowner family. The older sibling is Lorens, and he works the soil
like the ancients did. The younger, Ellis, is doted on by his mother, so much so that she sends him away to the big city, where she hopes he’ll get a
higher education and make her proud. But when Ellis returns, he is not alone, and his mother doesn’t like the future bride he brings to their house. When she asks him for his price, he claims the soil, and thus, the brothers turn enemies…

Cain at Abel offers the total Lino Brocka experience: an acerbic commentary on the Philippines’ rural proprietor class and its ongoing internecine struggles in the shape of a flamboyant melodrama with some grim ‘n glorious violence. It’s an entertainment that pulls no punches, that delivers passions and shocks and laughs as well, while leaving the audience with a thing or two to think about regarding the people running their country. Besides all that, it’s a religious allegory, and how better to talk to an archipelago full of Catholics? In all, it’s cinema.

– Olaf Möller

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