Because we are people with real lives and infinite similarities as a people, an audience or a country for that matter, movies of realistic fiction settings, spanning from comedy to drama and romance constantly earn their rightful piece of the artistic spotlight. They are personally engaging. These films move us. Chalk it up to the "human condition." Focusing on film as an audience, we constantly compare our own lives to what we are watching. Since life is hard no matter the setting, we often take stock in watching a film that either reminds us how good we had it or by contrast, offers relief that others had it just as hard or worse than we did. This is almost an automatic response for us as an audience and we are drawn to that feeling. Joel C. Lamangan's Fatherland (Bentria Productions, Heaven's Best Entertainment, 2025) avoids the linear and oscillates between Alex’s (Inigo Pascual) memories of his father Ipe (Allen Dizon). Lamangan and screenwriter Roy Iglesias know real-life events don't play out or turn out like they do in the movies. They aren't announced with inane plot-descriptive dialogue by supporting characters. Real lives move in moments and operate in nuances. Fatherland is about men and Lamangan weaves his narrative from two temporal threads. One is the story of how Alex begins the search for his father. The other is the story of Ipe, as lovers and family members remember him. The entire film is filtered through Alex’s consciousness, rendered in a way that affirms the basic condition of cinema—that every image is as present on the screen as every other image. Dizon has a seemingly impossible task of playing three different personalities, convincing us all that they’re in the same body and having them all come across as sincere and non-gimmicky. He is especially amazing to watch. There’s enough nuance in Dizon’s demeanor for you to really read into them and it’s fascinating to observe such intricate dynamics play out within a single person. He also plays Ipe’s alters, Fayez and Teban, performed with the same manic quality Dizon brought to his role in Abenida (2023). As we meet Ipe’s alters, the film becomes a stage for Dizon to unleash a repertoire of personas.
The theme is dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder, a condition that causes people’s selves to fragment into multiple personas. It’s still a much-debated phenomenon, but Lamangan’s premise here is that DID is not only real and to be taken seriously, but that it might also potentially be for the purposes of storytelling. Opposite Dizon is Pascual as Alex, who ends up being just as interesting though not right away. One of my favorite parts is how Alex’s past shaped who he is now and how it mixes with his present to potentially shape his future. We get flashbacks showing signs that something is missing in his childhood and it becomes clearer the more they play out. Pascual centers all of that in a strong, often subdued performance. He’s the principal participant in the action and he rises to the occasion with a subtly colored emotional palette that, while often muted, is never dull. There are great supporting performances all round—Jim Pebanco as Yoyong, Angel Aquino’s Yazmin and Mercedes Cabral playing Vice Mayor Gwen Greco are especially good. Cherry Pie Picache is remarkable as Rose Chen, the Alice Guo-like Mayor of San Sebastian. Fatherland achieves something quite remarkable: it charts Lamangan's maturation. And it's this sense of maturation that infuses the film, catapulting it beyond a typical indie-film narrative to something far more ambitious in scope. We’re invited to hang back and observe rather than rely on conventional story frameworks. We’re asked to feel and empathize with Alex, Ipe and the other characters rather than enjoy the usual roller-coaster ride of dramatic conflict. We’re asked to be open to indeterminacy and change. Can we accept the film’s invitation to be at one with the events on screen? When the real Ipe himself finally shows up, his instant connection with Alex is heartbreaking as he desperately tries to reach out through a brief reprieve is as moving as any of the human interactions in the movie.
Screenplay: Roy Iglesias
Director of Photography: T.M. Malones
Production Design: Jay Custodio
Editing: Vanessa Ubas de Leon
Music: Von de Guzman
Sound Design: Fatima Nerikka Salim
Directed By: Joel C. Lamangan
