North American Premiere

Mateo is a Filipino teenager failing high school. With his father missing, he relies on the paternal protection of his Uncle Berto, a local gang leader. When Mateo runs out of options and needs to leave town, he finally turns to his Uncle, accepting a seemingly inevitable life of violence.

The Philippines are no place for a sensitive teenager. Mateo works in a slaughterhouse and tries to keep up in school, to no avail. When his father goes missing, he is devastated emotionally, but he’s also a little lost in navigating life by himself. Mateo turns to his uncle, who welcomes the young man into the fold, where he’ll school the boy on the finer points of drug dealing, extortion, robbery and, eventually murder.

Content advisory: violence