REEF HUNTERS (MURO AMI) Asian New Classics

The Philippine’s foremost director, Marilou Diaz Abaya (IN THE NAVAL OF THE SEA-AFI Fest ’98, RIZAL) returns with this literally breathtaking descent into the silent waters off the southern Filipino island of Bohol.

Megastar Cesar Montano is Freda, a reef diver haunted by an old grudge with the sea. Recruiting over 200 free divers-most of them children-he sets about the grueling but time-honored practice of diving, pounding the coral reef with rocks and driving fish into massive nets. As he becomes more obsessed with the sales and profits from his catch, he tyrannizes the crew, ignores the danger signs and drifts closer to calamity.

Beautifully photographed and thoughtfully cast with both professional and amateur actors, REEF HUNTERS dispatches a powerful message about a fragile environment that must endure both the timelessness of traditional reef fishing and the immediacy of crushing poverty.