Debut Feature on Maguindanao Massacre Debuts at Busan Asian Project Market
E del Mundo's first feature dramatizes a bystander's descent into complicity during the 2009 Philippine political killings.
Shortfundly Desk · Busan ·
Philippine filmmaker E del Mundo brings a debut feature to the Asian Project Market at the Busan International Film Festival. "Once Upon a Time in the Philippines" centers on a young woman drawn into the events surrounding the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, tracing her shift from reluctant witness to active participant.
The project uses the real-life journalist killings as a backdrop to explore how ordinary individuals become entangled in systemic violence. Del Mundo frames the narrative through a personal lens, focusing on moral compromise rather than political exposition.
As a market selection, the film seeks co-production partners and distribution pathways for a story rooted in a specific historical atrocity but aimed at universal themes of complicity and survival.
This brief draws on reporting from Variety.
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