Powerful feminist work that offers social critique of blind devotion, both romantic and religious. With its realistic directness and colorful melodrama, Bona is one of the highlights of Filipino cinema.

Bona, a young middle-class woman from the Philippines, drops out of high school to follow Gardo, a minor actor in low-budget films. When her father tries to beat some sense into her, Bona decides to move in with Gardo. At first delighted to be the housewife, she soon finds herself not the lover but the maid.

Shot in the densely populated slums of Manila with a dynamic mix of realist immediacy and colour-soaked melodrama, Bona is an intoxicating social critique, a cautionary tale about the dangers of devotion, whether religious or romantic, and a remarkable work of feminism.

A major collaboration between two greats of Filipino cinema, filmmaker Lino BROCKA and superstar Nora AUNOR, Bona has remained largely unseen since its release in 1980, its elements long believed lost. Newly available in an exquisite restoration, Bona further cements Brocka’s importance as a major global auteur.