Director’s Notes

This film is a deeply personal exploration of the silent yet corrosive legacy that colonialism has left in the Filipino psyche—its insidious power to fragment not only nations but also families and individuals. Through the story of three siblings, all domestic workers in Italy, I wanted to examine how centuries of oppression, displacement, and the struggle for survival have shaped the intimate dynamics of the family, creating spaces where unresolved pain festers in silence.

The villa where the siblings reunite serves as a symbolic extension of their imprisonment in a foreign world that has imposed its architecture upon their lives. The distances between them are not just physical; they echo an unspoken history that haunts them. The scars of migration—of always serving in someone else’s home—reveal a fractured sense of belonging, where care is tainted by resentment and love is inseparable from bitterness.

At its core, this film reflects a deeper and darker truth: when the oppressed internalize the violence of their oppressors, the result can be even more devastating. The most sinister legacy of colonialism lies in how it transforms pain into power, turning those who have suffered into unwitting instruments of suffering. The disintegration of brotherhood is not simply the result of personal failures but a symptom of a much greater and more pervasive affliction—one that turns victimization into a weapon.

The most tragic outcome of this legacy manifests when the oppressed, marked by years of struggle, unconsciously become agents of the very oppression they once fought against. This film serves as both a warning and a reminder that the wounds inflicted by history do not disappear; they mutate, internalize, and poison even our most intimate relationships. If we do not confront this cycle, the pain of the past will continue to claim new victims—sometimes even at our own hands.