GIVE UP TOMORROW (2011)

Killing in the name of justice

USA. Direction: Michael Collins. Production: Marty Syjuco / Thoughtful Robot, ITVS, Storyville. Screenplay: Michael Collins, Marty Syjuco, Eric Daniel Metzgar. Photography: Joshua Z. Weinstein. Music: Adam Crystal. Edition: Eric Daniel Metzgar. Running time: 95 min

LANGUAGE: English, Tagalog, Cebuan, Spanish / SUBTITLES: Spanish

As a tropical storm batters Cebu Island (in the Philippine archipelago), two sisters disappear on their way home. That same night, in Manila (located on another island more than 300 kilometres away), 19 year-old Paco Larrañaga is at a party, surrounded by dozens of witnesses. He will be accused of raping and murdering the two women along with another six men.

Give Up Tomorrow is the chronicle of a murder case and the portrait of a corrupt system. Focussed on the figure of Paco Larrañaga, the film reflects an absolutely Kafkaesque police investigation and trial surrounded by a frenzied media circus. But it is also a family drama of the two mothers who have dedicated more than fifteen years to having a young man executed or saved.

Talk: Michael Collins (director), Marty Syjuco (producer), Maisha Ortoll & Sarah de Mas (activists in Paco Larrañaga's case)