AllMovie

Filipino filmmaker Khavn goes against the politically correct, preconceived notions of what it means to live in a garbage-strewn slum with this vibrant, punk-infused look at youth living and playing in squalor. For many Americans television viewers, images of crying children suffering from malnutrition and playing in garbage are often accompanied by a telephone number asking for donations. Khavn is determined to break that cliché by painting a compelling, monochromatic portrait of an impoverished slum district near Manila. With black-and-white images set to the energetic and urgent sound of anarchic punk, this bleak but remarkable vision presents a world viewers only thought they knew in a way that they could have never imagined.