Made in the low-key, vérité style, writer/director TM Malones favors an austere approach that relies on long, unblinking takes, uses no music that doesn’t occur within the action itself. Remote lands are often treasure boxes full of local lore. Set in Gigantes Island, an island chain within the larger Western Visayas archipelago in the Visayan Sea, Salum (Dark Media Productions, Bonfire Productions, Filmpost Studios, Puregold Cinepanalo Film Festival, 2025) uses complex aesthetic combinations of camera and light to infuse its beauty by combining poetic imagery with diegetic conversation. Malones' living tableaus seem almost expressionistic, capturing informal portraits of Kasko (Allen Dizon) and daughter Arya (Chiristine Mary Demaisip) through gesture. Salum locates the richness in its simplicity, offering such tender moments as the living treasures Kasko finds in the ocean depths. The underwater scenes play with a bloc of soft muffled tones, often bestowing a preternatural sensuousness to the lush, rippling images, both instinctive and carefully considered. Salum’s washed-out palette pop against the deep blue, almost as though one were looking through a viewfinder. Malones' light seems veiled and diffused, at times overwhelming in its beguiling intensity. Rather than the clichéd pinscreen of the tiny human figure dwarfed by nature, Malones favors closer shots that align humans and the environment challenging romantic notions with his camera. Salum produces such resonant images at a pace that belies the more relaxed rhythms of its story.
Isolated with the father-daughter pair freed from worldly concern or by the image of a frustrated Kasko diving into the murky depths of the ocean. The director has a keen eye for blocking, carefully composing some shots so we have to rely on reflections and background figures. Dizon's magnetic performance brings to life one of the greatest depictions of flawed fatherhood in recent memory, as he brims with both an ineffaceable warmth and an endearing ruggedness. Dizon’s Kasko is far from the perfect dad, but we are drawn into his concerted effort to not only be a great parent but a best friend to his daughter. Demaisip’s Arya radiates with an innate curiosity, as her expressive, yet understated performance perfectly captures the sheer multitude of what Kasko means to her—and the profound impact it will have on her. Simply put, it’s one of the strongest performances in recent years. Salum excels off its two dynamic performances, taut direction and lush cinematography. It’s no surprise that it all beautifully coalesces in a cathartic swell of emotions that crash down on its audience with immense power, unearthing all the faint and fleeting images we have of the people who mean the most to us. It truly is an astonishing achievement. Events play out at an unhurried pace, but the film certainly leaves a lasting emotional impression. Salum is left open-ended and that’s a perfect conclusion to this portrait of a father and daughter relationship. Deftly constructed and utterly heartbreaking, Salum announces Malones as an eminent storyteller of prodigious powers.
Director of Photography: TM Malones
Production Designer Kyle Fermindoza
Editor: Tara Illenberger
Sound Design: Fatima Nerikka Salim, Immanuel Verona
Music By: Armor Rapista
Written & Directed By: TM Malones
