Opening Film

Davao Ngilngig Festival 2018 is bringing to Davao for the first time the most awarded Pinoy film of the past year, which is also the most controversial, having earned ZERO rating from the Cinema Evaluation Board.

BALANGIGA: HOWLING WILDERNESS by prolific Filipino filmmaker Khavn De La Cruz is DNF 2018’s opening film on October 26, 2018 at Gaisano Mall Cinema 4, 7pm. The film captures Davao Ngilngig Festival’s expansive vision for its 4th edition– and adventurous and ambitious foray into our nation’s history and fractured psyche.

The film won Best Film at both the Gawad Urian 2018 and the FAMAS 2018 awards. It premiered last year at the QCinema International Film Festival 2017 where it won numerous awards including Best Film.

Writer and sociologist Arnold Alamon describes the film, “as a cinematic experience that is difficult to put in words and is better felt than described… a painful cathartic look into how our past bleeds into the present.”

Balangiga: Howling Wilderness (2017)
Director: Khavn de la Cruz
Manila/Samar / Historical-drama / 120 min
The synopsis from QCinema reads: “1901, Balangiga. Eight-year-old Kulas flees town with his grandfather and their carabao to escape General Smith’s Kill & Burn order. He finds a toddler amid a sea of corpses and together, the two boys struggle to survive the American occupation.”