Foster Child

Whereas Brillante Mendoza’s Slingshot is a frenzy, Foster Child, another of the director’s three 2007 releases, is a slow burn. Employing the same handheld camerawork Slingshot uses to evoke the desperation of Manila’s slums, Foster Child shows how stability can thrive amid the littered dirt alleys and ramshackle buildings. But stability does not preclude heartbreak.

Slingshot’s streets are overrun by vice, but Foster Child’s teem with babies. Around every corner, young women congregate, their arms cradling infants and their bellies swelling with future ones. Here we meet Thelma (Cherry Pie Picache), a mother of two teenage sons and caretaker of a young boy named John John (Kier Segundo). The film tracks Thelma and John John’s final day together, which will culminate in John John’s adoption to an American family. The camera lingers on their daily rituals, creating poetry out of the seemingly mundane. In a beautiful, tender scene, Thelma bathes John John, who prances around nude, wholly unselfconscious and unaware of the day’s relevance. He follows Thelma, her son Yuri (Manio) and Bianca (Domingo), the foster home’s leader, from one errand to the next, heading toward the posh hotel where John John’s future parents stay. The luxury of the hotel contrasts sharply with Thelma’s home, signaling John John’s entry into a new world. Separation is imminent and—guided by Picache’s gorgeous performance—we’re with them every step of the way.