Manila in the Claws of Light

Manila in the Claws of Light (Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag, 1975) — watch online on iFILM. Filipino director Lino Brocka follows Julio, a young fisherman from the provinces, into Manila where he's searching for his girlfriend — last seen heading to a city job that turned out to be a lie. What he finds is a city built on the exploitation of exactly the kind of people he is.

Bembol Roco carries the film with a performance of quiet, accumulating fury. Brocka shot on location in Manila's actual slums, docks, and construction sites; nothing here looks arranged. Julio's search holds the narrative together, but the real subject is the mechanics of poverty — who profits from it, who enforces it, how long a person stays whole inside it.

Selected for the Cannes Film Festival, the film is consistently listed among the greatest works of Asian cinema. Stream Manila in the Claws of Light (1975) on iFILM — demanding, politically clear-eyed, made with open anger.