Festival Note
On the eve of the 2013 Zamboanga Siege, pregnant couple Elena and Nasser try to survive the devastatingly low yield of their flower farm, and raise money for the birth of their first child. Serendipitously, Nasser gets invited to a peace rally in exchange for some cash – a solution to their problems that seems too good to be true.
Xeph Suarez is a Mindanaoan filmmaker based in Manila, Philippines. He has directed a number of short films including Si Astri maka si Tambulah, which won Best Director and received a Jury Citation at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival 2018. The film was screened in several international film festivals, including PÖFF Shorts – Tallinn Black Nights and Tampere Film Festival.
He is the producer of the 2016 QCinema International Film Festival’s Best Short Film, Hondo. The film was later competed at the 2017 Jogja- NETPAC Asian Film Festival.
He is currently developing his first feature film Dancing the Tides, which has participated at the Full Circle Lab, Singapore International Film Festival’s Southeast Asian Film Lab, EAVE’s Ties that Bind, and La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut français in Cannes.