International Premiere | In Competition | White Mulberry Award Candidate
Guest stars:
Kevin MAYUGA, director
Jan PINEDA, producer
Christine DE GUIA, writer
Mano GONZALES, costume designer
Abbey DE GUIA-MAGUYA, screenwriter
The hallucinogenic When This Is All Over (labeled “A Kevin Mayuga Trip”) comes one year after former president Rodrigo Duterte’s regime, known for his bloody war on drugs. For Cinemalaya, a festival known for its social realist films (they were criticized in 2012 for featuring a bourgeoisie film about a rich kid’s struggle to overcome his trauma), to let loose a movie that’s decidedly fixated on the antics of the privileged and the rich is so telling of its welcome to new voices, especially ones who are eager to process the Duterte years and the pandemic. When This Is All Over parses the class divide, which was made more apparent by the pandemic, by turning a young man’s emptiness into a psychedelic hellscape populated by spoiled brats, struggling wage workers, and a truckload of hilariously-named drugs.
Set during the early days of the pandemic lockdown, when mobility was restricted, and people were confined in their homes, the film answers the question, “What did rich kids do when the sick and the poor were dying during the pandemic?” Well, some of them just wanted to party. Four rich kids enlist “The Guy” (Labajo) to throw a secret party (“an industrial rave”) on the rooftop of their condo. In exchange, one of the kids will use her connection to the U.S. Embassy so that the Guy can go to the U.S. and finally join his mother, who left him a few years ago.
When This is All Over perfectly illustrates the limbo of the lengthy lockdown in the Philippines: workers trying their best to keep their jobs, strict security checkpoints, the glum-looking streets with people going to the grocery or on their way to essential work, and the upper class ensconced in their pedestals whiling the hours away. Aware that he also moves with privilege, Mayuga captures this unique (and slightly absurd yet real) situation to blow up familiar themes of apathy, disconnection, and inequality by setting it to a soundtrack that sticks to your brain while you go on a wild trip towards the white cloud of escape.