The Sigbin Chronicles

Logline
Sensing their lives are on the line, two outcasts – a hit-man about to embark on his last mission, and an introverted performer stuck in his call-center job – both seek inspiration and protection from the harsh realities of their lives through the coveted and feared creature of Philippine mythology, the Sigbin.

Synopsis
Leon Kilat, a revolutionary hero who fought for his country from colonial Spain, is believed to own a Sigbin and protected by a vest with religious inscriptions. He is indestructible in the battlefield but in the end, he dies in the hands of his own men. The legend of Leon Kilat trickles into the lives of two men in modern-day Cebu.
The Hitman’s time has come. He leaves the prison to murder a political figure and puts on a vest inscribed with medieval symbols and a drawing of a Sigbin. As part of his deal, he visits his father’s village by the sea for a day and is reunited with his father, Langging- a young boy who idolizes him, and Tristina- his love. These encounters make him want to fight against his fate: death at the hands of the people he works for.
Santiago, a talented artist, detests his job in the call center. His religious family strongly disapproves of his art. He envies the Sigbin and longs to have that ability to be somewhere else. Finally fed up, he walks out on his job one day and travels with a group of performance artists to perform a tribute to the hero, Leon Kilat.
In the province of Leon Kilat’s birth, the Hitman and Santiago face with their fate.

Bianca Balbuena
Bianca Balbuena has attended Produire Au Sud and the Berlinale Talent Project Market where she won the International Relations Arte Prize for her work on Above the Clouds. She was also part of the Berlinale Talent Campus, Talent Campus Tokyo, the Rotterdam Lab, and EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs).She is Co-writer and Associate Director of Engkwentro (Clash, 2009), which won Best Film in the Orrizonti Category and the Lion of the Future at the Venice Film Festival 2009. She is presently producing Pepe Diokno’s Above the Clouds and Lav Diaz’s The Great Desaparecido.

Epicmedia
Epicmedia is a Manila-based film company, founded in 2011 by
 producing partners Pepe Diokno and Bianca Balbuena. Its mission is
to create quality movies with a Filipino heart and a global spirit. The company capitalizes on the wealth of film talent in the Philippines, as well as the low cost of production in the country. It is currently producing films (Above The Clouds, The Great Desaparecido, The Sigbin Chronicles, Aberya) and documentaries (Taguri: The Kites of Sulu, Ivan The Undertaker).

Old Food Films
Old Fool Films has produced two award-winning films, Neo-Lounge (2007, Best Documentary at Brussels International Independent Film Festival & Best Documentary at Cinemanila International Film Festival), and Yugong Yishan (2008, Kyobo Award at Busan Asian Short Film Festival & Premio Pobreza Zero Award at the Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre Humberto Solas). The company’s latest documentary, Sunday School (2010), was one of 12 non-African projects commissioned by the Rotterdam International Film Festival for their Forget Africa series.

I have been told my lineage is tied to that of the Sigbin. Since I was young, I’ve always heard that my family is “Sigbinan”, possessors of destructive monsters who can travel anywhere. This film is a refreshing take on the myth, showing the positive side of how a Sigbin brings protection to its owner until it is passed on to another.The director, Joanna Vasquez Arong, is very much drawn to myths but also keeps close ties to her documentary background. She has interviewed local heritage experts and spent time with two local hit-men, as well as meeting artists who have found themselves stuck in call-centers. Personally, The Sigbin Chronicles is about how people can become blind slaves to the dictates of society, until we can overcome our fears and finally set ourselves free.