France, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia
2021 104 mins
OV Multilingual
Subtitles : English
“Frequently heartbreaking yet buoyed by human absurdity, whimsy and understated humour… spellbinding”
- Khyne Palumar, NME Waking in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan to find his coastal town (a stand-in for Tacloban City) completely decimated, Miguel (Daniel Padilla,
THE HOWS OF US) begins searching for his mother Norma (Charo Santos-Concio,
KISAPMATA, THE WOMAN WHO LEFT) and friend Andrea (Rans Rifol) in the rubble. Shelters are overflowing, people are bartering for food, praying, dancing and doing anything necessary to survive. Meanwhile, news of a single ship leaving the coast for Manila makes its way through the crowd, as another storm threatens to hit land imminently. The trio must decide what to do, but their home has other plans for them.
Prolific short filmmaker (
JODILERKS DELA CRUZ: EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH) and renowned editor (Khavn’s de la Cruz’s
RUINED HEART, BALANGIGA) Carlo Francisco Manatad makes the leap to feature films with the multi-award winning, Locarno- and TIFF-selected
WHETHER THE WEATHER IS FINE. Taking the tragedy of 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan as its conceptual starting point, Manatad spins a hypnotizing survival story predicated on the unmooring of the familiar following societal collapse. It complicates NGO-ready, government-stamped notions of “resilience” and instead offers a multi-pronged critique of inaction and systemic failure as well as a probe into human nature and its survival mechanisms—be it blind faith, violence, or sheer imagination. Environmental disaster is rendered here surreal, apocalyptic, in a uniquely fantastical film that unfolds as a series of magical-realist vignettes that allows us to grasp at meaning in the face of senseless, cyclical tragedy.
– Ariel Esteban Cayer
