The official movie poster of “It’s Raining Frogs Outside” (Ampangabagat Nin Talakba Ha Likol). CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
SAN ANTONIO, Zambales — After winning one of the top prizes in QCinema International Film Festival last year, a short film shot entirely in this town during the pandemic made it to Berlin International Film Festival 2022.
“It’s Raining Frogs Outside” (Ampangabagat Nin Talakba Ha Likol), which was directed by Maria Estela Paiso, is the only Filipino film that was included in the festival’s official selection of under 30-minute films.
The film won the Gender Sensitivity Award in QCinema recently and will join 20 other films selected around the world for the Berlinale shorts competition.
Berlin International Film Festival 2022, which will run from Feb. 10 to 20, is one of the largest public film festivals in the world and is considered as the most political of all the major film festivals.
According to the film’s synopsis, a girl named Maya goes home to Zambales due to the impending end of the world and realizes that her childhood home is watching her.
“Because it’s raining frogs outside, she stays at home and is tormented by the house. Maya eventually wonders if the house is still worth escaping if the world outside is already ending,” it said.
The last part of the film featured an Inquirer article about Zambales fishermen who have abandoned the “dangerous Scarborough Shoal” to show the plight of local fishermen caught in the middle of China’s grab of Philippine maritime territory.