In the Claws of a Century Wanting

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A Film by Jewel Maranan

A film about four people in different stages of life, surrounded by Manila's busiest international port. They are among the bottom quarter of Manila's population. And in the hours of their ordinary days, they hear and see, the wealth of different nations packed as cargo, passing them by, leaving and entering Manila's shores.


The film follows these lives – a mother and her newborn, a child worker learning how to read and write, a group of fathers working in the pier and an old widow watching over the funeral of her dead husband. As we follow the cycle of their lives, we follow the cycle of the port. And soon, what surrounds them is bound to smother them. Pushed by the increasing traffic of global trade, the port will be expanded, gradually taking the spaces where they now to live.


The film seeks to capture a global process from the perspective of everyday life. It seeks to film this approaching conflict compound and overarch the struggles of an already precarious living.  In the everyday of four small homes, the film would trace imprints of the larger world.

TITLE In the Claws of a Century Wanting
GENRE Documentary
LENGTH  125 minutes
FORMAT HD
LANGUAGE Filipino
LOCATION Manila

PRODUCTION Cinema Is Incomplete, Sutor Kolonko
PRODUCER Jewel Maranan, Ingmar Trost
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Jewel Maranan
SUPPORTED BY Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Doha Film Institute, Asian Network of Documentary

Philippines / Germany 2017