Review of Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (2011) by Aleksander D — 12 Oct 2012

Amusing satire. Filmmakers can, like the rest of us, be a bit self-centred, resulting in movies about making movies. This is one is an amusing satire about a group of indie filmmakers. They are planning a movie about life in the slums of Manila, discussing how to make it an award winner, a success on the film festival circuit, what boxes to tick off, poverty, sex tourism, pedophilia... Who should act in it? Should it be a gritty docudrama or maybe a musical? This is perhaps the best part of the movie, the movie morphing in the mind of the production assistant as the director, producer and lead actress discuss it.

The one thing they do seem oblivious of, being well-to-do, Apple-touting hipsters, is the subject matter of the movie they are making. The slums are as alien to them as it is to the Western, festival-going target audience. Something that is only too evident when they first show up on location in the slum. Jumping and screaming with joy on how perfect it is, at least until they get something else to jump and scream about.

There are several laugh-out-loud funny scenes, but also some rather tedious ones. The moment reality intervenes is too melodramatic by far, and the closing scene, the one giving name to the movie seems rather arbitrary. Despite these shortcomings it remains a watchable and amusing satire.