Ex Press
Jet Leyco
2011 - 90 min - Couleur et Noir & Blanc - Philippines

In this first feature, young Filipino filmmaker Jet Leyco emerges with a remarkably precise, deeply creative eye. Straddling the lines between fiction and documentary, myth and reality, Ex Press can be situated in the poetic-political vein mined by distant cousin Weerasethakul. Alternating between colour and black & white, this beautifully shot and utterly unclassifiable film is a haunted voyage into the recent history of a jungle railroad infamous for its security guards’ brutality. The ghost of a particularly sadistic “colonel” who mysteriously quit looms over every frame of this trip through time and space – a trip whose calm, hypnotic pace is the foundation of a powerful meditation on institutionalized violence.