Moonglow

Late 1970s Manila, under dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Aggrieved by the inescapable corruption around her, Dahlia secretly commits a heist. Isabel Sandoval builds a story with controlled tension and rich atmosphere, tracing how desire and wrongdoing fold into one another.

The Philippines, 1979, under Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship. Dahlia has witnessed enough suffering for one lifetime. For once she wants to make the proverbial difference, and steals money from her superior to give to the residents of a slum recently razed. Mind: Dahlia is a police officer, and her boss is as corrupt as the rest of the ruling and administrative class. The story takes a decisive turn when she is assigned to investigate the theft herself and paired with the chief’s nephew, Charlie – a man with whom she once shared a past.

With Moonglow, Isabel Sandoval has crafted her fourth fiction feature as a feast for the eyes and ears: a film noir rendered in bright, sensuous colours and unfolding at a luxuriously unhurried pace that leans into melodrama. Sandoval plays Dahlia with a poise that recalls the great screen divas of a more romantic age, each gesture carrying intention, each glance hinting at pleasure or pain.

– Vanja Kaludjercic

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