SILA-SILA

The Same People

Director & producer.

Feature-length film, 120 mins.
ABS-CBN Films.
2019.

Cinema One Originals.

  • Poster

  • Friends

  • Stranger

  • Exes

  • The Ghost

Writer: Daniel Saniana
Producers: Chad Cabigon, Bianca Basilio & Giancarlo Abrahan
Cinematography: Theo Lozada
Production Design: Whammy Alcazaren & Thesa Tang
Film Editing: Ilsa Malsi
Music: Igo Gonzalez
Sound Design: Daryl Libongco, Aeriel Ellyzon Mallari, RJ Cantos
& Mikko Quizon
Assistant Director: Elton James Quijano
Production Management: Meg Bryan Bermudez
Cast: Gio Gahol, Topper Fabregas, Dwein Baltazar, Phi Palmos
Bart Guingona, Boo Gabunada, Kych Minemoto, Vincent Kevin Pajara
Meann Espinosa, Jay Gonzaga, Sunshine Teodoro
Adrienne Vergara, Thea Marabut, Juan Miguel Severo, Lin Javier
Jasmine Curtis-Smith
Original Songs: Shirebound & Busking, Raf Bernardino, Aeron Jore
& Bianong Labiano

selected reviews

on CNN PHILIPPINES:

5. “Sila-Sila” (dir. Giancarlo Abrahan)

Abrahan understands, perhaps better than any other Filipino filmmaker working today, the costs of miscommunication. He shows surfaces, and he shows how surfaces become faces. One can suppose that “Sila-Sila” is a straight film with gay characters, or a gay film with straight characters, simply because it is concerned less with straightness and gayness than with detachment and delusion inherent in any relationship built on love. It is a tragicomedy, a painful one, that demonstrates the predicament of smart people who keep choosing the wrong thing all the time, and when they finally choose what is right, it hurts them the most.

from The best Filipino films of 2019
Richard Bolisay

on RAPPLER:

The rewards are plenty as Giancarlo Abrahan’s drama, which centers on an aimless gay man as he tries to reconnect with former friends and old flames, is tender and sincere, speaking volumes not about, but for the outsiders and those who are often misunderstood.

from The 12 best Filipino films of 2019
Oggs Cruz

SILA-SILA review: Speaking volumes

Sila-sila plunges its audience in a world of complex relationships and even more complex emotions of a gay man. The film adamantly refuses to lionize its protagonist, exposing his scars and warts, revealing him not as a sufferer or hero or martyr as other queer films would more likely do but as a human being who continuously annoys and frustrates with his insecurities and hesitations.

The film understands the proclivities of existing as an outsider not just on the basis of sexual preference but also of personal experience, temperament, and even whim. Instead of treating its subject with a grandeur that doesn’t fit the intimacy of the concern, it decides to meander and fully exhaust the unpredictable routine of what could be described as an aimless stranger to a once-familiar landscape.

Abrahan’s film shines in its many moments of irresistible urgency and sincerity. It feels small and secluded but its beating and unprejudiced heart speaks volumes.

-       from 2019 Cinema One Originals films Part 1
Oggs Cruz

on FILM POLICE REVIEWS:

There’s something beyond the intimacy and truthfulness of Giancarlo Abrahan’s films that you just can’t quite put a finger on... What I do know for a fact is that Abrahan knows the meaning of empathy. His understanding transcends all ages…
Sila-Sila (its English title aptly translates to “The Same People)…tries to swim along the waves of love and truth, diving into relationships…Nothing is fully resolved in the end, and that’s okay.

from The Best Filipino films of 2019 (Part 2)
Engelbert Rafferty