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Premiere of On the Job by Erik Matti at the 12th FICM

Erik Matti is part of the Philippine film scene that has been promoted on the European circuits, mainly in the Cannes Film Festival. Pierre Rissient, Guest of Honor at this edition, has been an indispensible element in the promotion of various figures of the Asian continent. Key personalities of China’s cinematography like Hou Hsiao Hsien, King Hu and Zhang Yimou have exhibited their films at Cannes thanks to the work of Rissient and today are world-renowned. In the Philippines, this ambassador of Asian cinema promoted the restoration of a classic film by Lino Broka called Manila: en las garras del neon / Manila: In the Claws of Light (1975), through the World Cinema Foundation of Martin Scorcese. The restored work was presented at Cannes 2013, along with six other films from that country, including the feature films by Adolfo Alix Jr, Lav Diaz and Erik Matti.

On the Job shows the corruption of the authorities in the Philippines who use prisoners to commit cold-blooded murder. Like Lino Broka, Erik Matti addresses social issues in his country. In his film, the economic and criminal violence of the Philippine environment is starkly exposed. The film poses a contrast that describes the complexity of situations generated by impunity: first, it offers a crude account of the process of collusion between authorities and criminals; second, it shows prisoners in human situations, interacting with their families, for example.

The director Erik Matti was present at the premiere of On the Job at the 12^th FICM and commented:

On the beginning of the filming process:

“The germ of the story started maybe 10 or 12 years ago. I came up with maybe two drafts of the script until five years ago I shot the opening scene of the film. I shot it for one day and sent it out like a trailer and XYZ Films got hold of it and asked if I could develop a script from it. So from there I did my research.”

On the mixture of fiction and reality in the film:

“The whole film is a composite of several stories. The story of the senator is actually a story of a congressman who hired prisoners to kill and he was caught. The backstory of Francis Coronel, of his father, is a true story of a general who committed suicide three years ago because he was going to squeal about money, corruption in the military. For the prison story we actually have four consultants with us, one is the military consultant who told us how prisoners are brought in and out.”

On the aesthetic approach of the film:

“The idea for the design of the film is divided into two. Everything on the side of the prisoners, all spaces are smaller than the amount of people in it. And on the side of the rich and the politicians, the space is bigger than the people in it. So that’s the idea for it now. I think what also helped is the way the design of the lighting was made. The only idea for the lighting was never light the actors. We only lighted the set. And wherever the actors fall, if it’s in the dark, it’s in the dark."

On the Philippine independent film movement:

Right now the Philippines has a wide range of films. In the independent movement, we have at least 120 to 150 films a year. And they all range from all sorts of topics, from socially relevant topics, cultural, gay, street dramas and even porn.”

On the Job by Erik Matti will be presented on Monday, October 20, at 7:30 pm at the Cinépolis Morelia Centro.

Coverage by Fabiola Aguilar Díaz (@panoramafunky)