Grandmother

In Manila the paths of two elderly women cross at the two ends of one killing. Lola Sepa’s grandson was killed in the street while resisting someone trying to take his phone, and she is trying to find the money for the funeral. Lola Puring’s grandson Mateo is the suspect in that death, and she too is after money, to get the boy out on bail. Under the rain, asking for loans, in queues for paperwork and in court corridors, the two women do the same work from opposite sides, and what justice means inside poverty becomes visible. In Brillante Mendoza’s hundred and ten minute Philippine French co-production, Anita Linda plays Sepa and Rustica Carpio plays Puring. It was shown at Venice on 7 September 2009.