The Ruins

Vic, a war hero from Korea returns to find his mother dying. When his mother dies, he is befriended by Tita, a prostitute with a golden heart who takes care of him, but eventually both fall into a deeper relationship. Since both are poverty-stricken, Vic decides to work with Kardo, a smuggler... Avellana’s most acclaimed work combines the terrible images of Manila’s ruins (the film was shot a decade after war’s end, but due to lack of funds reconstruction was hardly complete) with a penchant for directing lively colloquial dialogue, and fine unforced performances from Rosa Rosal and Tony Santos; the result is a noirish melodrama set in an unrelentingly bleak postwar reality.