Just seen: Philippine Science (or Pisay) by Auraeus Solito. J.S. mentions it briefly in the October issue of Cahiers. The director’s first film The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros was released in France, while his Tuli (circumcision) made a strong impression in Berlin. Here Solito recounts his days as a graduate student in 1986, at the country’s most prestigious scientific institution where only the nation’s best pupils can enter. Whether it’s a good film is up to the viewer. It’s certainly a dreamlike concoction, with its liberal switching between English and Tagalog, its borrowings from American college movies, the canvas of historic events, dashes of social criticism and extravagance, its seeming amateurism that gradually gives way to sophistication, and a constant, almost camp sense of humor (the hairstyles and costumes alone deserve a special salute). All of this finally brings us back on solid ground, on a promised and at the same time confusingly familiar land. Exotic and calming. If the air conditioning doesn’t insist too much and gives the flu a chance to dissipate, and if paradise keeps its doors open, then we will return here tomorrow.