Manila in the Claws of Light

Where Butterflies Don't Fly

September 2023 •Czech

Daniel is an odd guy who lives with his endlessly quarrelling parents uncomplaining about his destiny. He keeps a distance from other people, he has no friends, nobody understands him, he is different. He will be turning nineteen and the last thing he would spend his time on is a preparation for his approaching graduation. Adam is his class teacher. He is gay who lives in a relationship with his younger partner David and his strictly guarded secret keeps locked behind a door of their apartment. Daniel and Adam live in their own bubbles until a moment when they both happen to be together in life threat. Lost in the darkness, cut off from the rest of the world, they are both looking for a way out. How far will they be willing to go?

Sing in Love

May 2022 •Japanese

Jin is a temporary elementary school teacher on his way to a permanent position when a traumatic event plunges him into a terrifying deep darkness. Three months later, a mysterious man named Kai provokes Jin's memories and feelings regarding the past experience through rapping. Why is Kai obsessed with Jin? How does Jin confront his own "darkness"? Conflicts and battles for men who have been deeply injured inspire healing. And does true love exist on the other side?

Children of Paradise

March 1945 •French

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

Lady Snowblood

December 1973 •Japanese

Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.

Our Mother's House

September 1967 •English

Seven British children bury their mother and hide her death, until their long-lost father returns.

Nobody Knows

August 2004 •Japanese

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

This Man Must Die

September 1969 •French

When his young son is killed in a hit and run accident, Charles Thenier resolves to hunt down and murder the killer. By chance, Thenier makes the acquaintance of an actress, Helène Lanson, who was in the car at the time of the accident. He then meets Helène’s brother-in-law, Paul Decourt, a truly horrible individual.

Time to Leave

May 2005 •French

Romain, 31, a fashion photographer with terminal cancer, elects to die alone, preparing others to live past him rather than prolong the inevitable with chemotherapy or be smothered in sympathy by those who know him.

Naked Lunch

December 1991 •English

Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

The Circle

September 2014 •German

A young teacher in Zurich in the 1950s falls in love with a transvestite star but is torn between his bourgeois existence and his commitment to homosexuality. He joins a gay organization that is eventually seen as the pioneer of gay emancipation in Europe.

Solaris

November 2002 •English

A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.

Liberty Stands Still

January 2002 •English

As the heir and current marketing director for one of the nation's biggest gun manufacturers, Liberty Wallace is indifferent to the atrocities made possible through her business and her CEO husband, Victor. On her way to see her actor lover, Liberty ends up chained to a food cart full of explosives -- all at the insistence of "Joe", a sniper whose young daughter was a victim of gun violence, and who now has Liberty in his sights.

2:37

May 2006 •English

A contemporary, ensemble drama that tells the complex tale of six high school students whose lives are interwoven with situations that so many of today's youth are faced with. The story takes place during a normal school day. At precisely 2:37 a tragedy will occur, affecting the lives of a group of students and their teachers.

The Glass House

September 2001 •English

When Ruby and Rhett's parents are killed in a car accident, their carefree teenage lives are suddenly shattered. Moving to an incredible house in Malibu with the Glasses', old friends of the family, seems to be the beginning of a new life for them.

Heimliche Ehen

January 1956 •German

Chasing Amy

April 1997 •English

Holden and Banky are comic book artists. Everything is going good for them until they meet Alyssa, also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian.

Lola

August 1981 •German

Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out—she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale. Shot in childlike candy colors, Fassbinder’s homage to Josef von Sternberg’s classic The Blue Angel stands as a satiric tribute to capitalism.

Closer

December 2004 •English

A love story about chance meetings, instant attractions, and casual betrayals. Four strangers - with one thing in common: each other.

Kafka

November 1991 •English

Kafka, an insurance worker gets embroiled in an underground group after a co-worker is murdered. The underground group is responsible for bombings all over town, attempting to thwart a secret organization that controls the major events in society. He eventually penetrates the secret organization and must confront them.

Lilies Not for Me

April 2025 •English

In 1920s England, a gay novelist and his psychiatric nurse form an unlikely friendship over a series of doctor-prescribed "dates." Through their conversations, he tells her the story of his relationship with an old friend which spiraled out of control when they turned to a risky procedure to cure themselves of their forbidden feelings for one another.