Mainstream cinemas in the Philippines have yet to screen it, but British-American documentary “On the President’s Orders,” a 1-hour-12-minute look into President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on illegal drugs, has already made quite a splash across the internet.
The film premiered Friday at a private screening at the International Human Rights Film festival at the University of the Philippines’ Cine Adarna, which also marked the 47th anniversary of martial law in the country.
Malacañang, the Philippine presidential HQ, had already caught whiff of the film’s existence: Three days before its premiere at the human rights film festival in Manila, Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo slammed the documentary as peddling “misinformation” and “overdramatizing” the president’s campaign on illegal drugs, reported The Philippine Star.
Watch this trailer to see why state officials might take issue with the tone that the movie strikes:
The film’s teaser opens with a quote from police in a town assembly asking, “Are the cops your friends or your enemies?” — and proceeds to show clips of police conducting raids, carrying on their duties inside prisons and the slums, and frisking drug suspects. Some of the suspected drug dealers are shown, slain. It ends with President Duterte’s promise to the Filipino public of not ending his war “until the last drug lord is killed,” motioning his hand over his neck to signal death.
Coconuts Manila phoned a few independent film outfits in the city to see if the documentary is lined up in their rosters — but no screening schedules as of yet. Most films need to be cleared by the national film regulatory board before being shown in theaters, or theaters can schedule a block or private screening for a film if its producers or filmmakers approached the theater directly to arrange such viewings.
“On the President’s Orders” was produced by Frontline and Mongoose Pictures, and directed by Emmy award-winning filmmakers James Jones and Olivier Sarbil, who both have prior experience in making films covering human rights violations. It premiered Sept. 13 at the Amnesty International office in London, followed by the screening in the Philippines to coincide with the martial law anniversary, and in Deadline in Los Angeles.
The film is set to make the rounds at a number of film festivals in Europe this month, then in New York and across the U.S. in October.
