Edgar is a survivor. In the “perfect world” of his wife Kaye, he feels out of place. He has taken a back seat to her pursuits of happiness, with Kaye striking gold in the multi-investment company of her father Juancho, and joining a formalist church/sect.
Though Edgar doesn’t share the same enthusiasm as his wife, he remains supportive, trying to find a line of work that will agree with her. All is well… until the promises investment returns stop coming in. It is then revealed that the company runs a pyramiding scam. Kaye suddenly finds herself at the bottom of the chaos when her investor friends demand their money back. After a loud and fruitless discussion, they ransack Kaye’s house, file a case against the couple, and ostracize them in their church. On top of that, Kaye’s father is found dead…
As Kaye shrinks into shame, Edgar tries to protect her and their daughter. However, Juancho’s debt catches up to them. The killers, a menacing “golfer couple”, Jessica and Cedric get at their doorstep, and, to prove they can do anything to get the money back, shave the hair off their daughter… Then, Edgar has no choice but to agree to pay back the millions within two weeks, or suffer Juancho’s fate…
Edgar decides to rob a bank, but this plan fails. Kaye then drags him to the church, to beg Bishop Tony to lend them the sum of their past tithes. But the Bishop bestows them with nothing more than hope and prayers, refusing to lend the money. Edgar heats up and nearly chokes the bishop to death…
Edgar then realizes he has to go back to his roots. He travels back to his hometown, in the Cordillera, and joins his family of miners, who stage robberies by digging their way down to banks or pawnshops, to steal the money, known as the infamous Acytelene gang. Edgar convinces some members of the gang to help him rob the church, by digging under. But the limited time (two weeks) puts them at risk.
However, they do go on with the project, and dig their way to the church one night. But there is heavy storm, and rainfall, and the bags of cash get caught, and spill in the sewer… Edgar has no other choice than gunning the killer golfer couple, to get rid of the threat. But this has a price, and he has to carry his burden, after losing Kaye.
Erik Matti’s latest film comes back to realism and social criticism, in the line of On the Job (for which he is preparing a sequel). Working again with reputed script writer Yamamoto Michiko, he goes deep into the Filipino society’s golden dreams, fake happiness based on money alone, and strongly influential churches or sects, obviously inspired by the recent turmoil in the biggest of them all, Iglesia ni Cristo, which was stained by scandals and heavy demonstrations last year.
His portrait of a family put at risk by their father’s secret debt, and the biblical reference (“Honor Thy Father”), reveals how fragile is their private life when the sudden loss of money ruins their basic hopes. It embarks then on a thriller pace, until the striking end, with a Hustonian touch of failure in the face of God!
Honor thy father was at the center of a huge controversy (even going up to debates in the Congress!) when it was disqualified from the Metri Manila Film festival, supposedly for having been shown in festivals before. It has sparkled outrage and strong reactions, leading to a possible reform in the regulations and members of the selection committee of the MMFF…