AllMovie

A disillusioned intellectual commits a murder that's wrongfully blamed on a desperate family man, leading them both down unexpected paths as the innocent convict's wife struggles to provide for their two young children in this literate drama inspired by Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Fabian (Sid Lucero) is a highly intelligent law student whose fiery rants against Philippine injustice captivate his admiring classmates. Joaquin (Archie Alemania) is a humble husband and father whose dream of transcending poverty is dashed after a tragic injury renders him unemployable. Unable to keep up his payments to vicious loan shark Miss Magda (Mae Paner), Joaquin falls into a deep depression that only worsens when Miss Magda turns up dead, and he's convicted of killing her. Meanwhile, Fabian, the real murderer, wanders free despite being a prisoner of his own outrage against his duplicitous, apathetic government. Incredibly, Joaquin finds a strange sense of peace in prison life, experiencing a strange transformation as his wife Eliza (Angeli Bayani) falls into a deep despair.