Auraeus Solito

Can a 12-year old lad who wishes he were a girl navigate the mean streets of Manila? Maxi cooks, cleans, and sews for his father and older brothers who are petty criminals. He's sweet, clever and hardworking, at ease with being gay, pinning a flower in his hair, swinging his hips when he walks, vamping with friends. He's seen adults hug and kiss and he's watched romantic movies, so on the verge of puberty, he develops a crush on Victor, a kindly young cop.

Daisy lives in a very conservative barrio (small town) ruled by men. Her father is the town's circumciser. He is abusive and a drunkard. Since she was young, she has always seen women being maltreated and objectified. Instead of growing up as one of the women who waits hand and foot for their men, Desiree's character grown to be quite the opposite. She's strong, brave and fought for her love that transverses the town's culture and beliefs. (imdb)

A poet sells his collection of comic books and action figures in order to afford to hire a male stripper on New Years Eve. (imdb)

Based on a myth from the island of Palawan, Suring invokes the spell of Parimanis, a spell of absolute beauty, and befriends a Kuk-ok, a creature whose fingers are stuck together and can transform into any form, including that of Suring's. (SMZ)

Amidst the chaos of Martial Law in this Third World country in the 1980s, six teenagers in the top high school for the sciences discover themselves as they go through the joys and pains of adolescence. (imdb)

Baybayin is set in the pristine coast of El Nido, Palawan. It tells the story of two half sisters (played by real-life siblings Assunta and Alessandra de Rossi) who fall in love with the same man (Adrian Sebastian) who is deaf mute. Having no way of communicating with the love of their lives, both women learn Baybayin -- an ancient Palawanon script -- and communicate with him by writing in that script. (Pinoy Rebyu)

In Busong, Alessandra de Rossi plays Punay, who is born with wounds on her feet and cannot step on the earth. Her brother, Angkarang, carries her through a hammock, as he searches the changing landscape of Palawan in hopes of finding a healer who can cure Punay. Different people help him carry his sister along the way - a woman looking for her husband, a fisherman who lost his boat, and a young man who is searching for himself - and each one meets their fate. (busongpalawanfate.com)