“Why being simple when you can be complicated?” The precept once famously uttered by Jacques Rivette can be applied to Whammy Alcazaren’s peculiar storytelling approach in Islands. Combining three different plots occurring in three distinct spaces and times, this seemingly overly intricate narrative device may take aback viewers at first. Accordingly, once the thematic unity starts to reveal itself as the plots unfold at their own languid pace, one can effortlessly grasp the simple but vibrant truth gently whispered by Alcazaren from the start; that love can be lost as soon as it may be won if it is not sworn as such, plainly and unequivocally.

Stunning both by its narrative audacity and its disarming naivety, the filmmaker shaped a delightedly bizarre movie in which the form and the content melt into one another in beautiful symbiosis. An impressive and poignant achievement.

Director: Whammy Alcazaren (Philippines, 2013)
With: Luis Alandy, Benjamin Alves, Meryll Soriano
124 min. English subtitles.