Ode to Nothing

Dwein Ruedas Baltazar's 2018 Filipino film is about a woman working in the funeral trade. Sonya runs a small embalming business with her father; the work has dwindled, the debts have piled up and there is nobody in her own life. One day the body of an unclaimed woman is brought in; instead of burying her, Sonya keeps her, dresses her, talks to her and keeps her in the house like a friend. The film does not use this for horror; it describes where loneliness brings a person and does not judge her. The telling is slow, dark and almost silent, with the sound design and the location as its main instruments. Pokwang was known as a comic performer and tries entirely different ground here. It is among the notable works of Filipino independent cinema. Who it's for: viewers who like slow, dark drama. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach corpses and decay; the film shows them.