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In 'Raging Grace,' a migrant worker's story takes a supernatural twist

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Don Tagala | TFC News New York

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jc9DVNshHTE?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><p>British-Filipino filmmaker Paris Zarcilla is the son of a domestic worker who grew up in Central London.</p><p>Seeing the micro and macro aggressions against Filipino migrant workers, he turned this anger and frustration into a movie during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>“Raging Grace” is the first ever British-Filipino feature film made in the U.K.</p><p>&quot;My mother was a carer and a cleaner when she first arrived in the UK despite being a qualified teacher,&quot; said Zarcilla. &quot;I saw what it was like to be denigrated, to be reduced, to be made invisible when she would take me to her workplaces.&quot;</p><p>Written and directed by Zarcilla himself,  this “coming of rage” story follows an undocumented overseas Filipino worker in the U.K. struggling to secure immigration status so she could provide a better life for her daughter.  </p><p>But the story does not end there: it takes on a genre-bending psychological thriller and supernatural twist.</p><p>&quot;An immigrant experience on the whole, is so often horrific, and horror felt like a natural direction for the film to lean towards,&quot; Zarcilla said. &quot;This film is not just a horror, it is a thriller, it is a drama, it has real elements of comedy in it.&quot;</p><p>He added: &quot;It’s more than the sum of its parts which feels reflective of real life to me, however fantastical this film may come across, it has put lived experiences on screen.&quot;</p><p>This lived experience is all too familiar to children of the Filipino diaspora like Zarcilla that is often ignored in the mainstream.  </p><p>Asked of his end goal in mind while writing the film, Zarcilla said: &quot;If there was going to be one film I make in my career then it has to be one that allowed me to rage, one that allowed me to speak truth to power.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Raging Grace&quot; is Zarcilla’s debut film that has won the Narrative Feature Jury Award and the Thunderbird Rising award for Best Debut at the 2023 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas earlier this year.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/03/25/23/paris-zarcillas-raging-grace-bags-major-prizes-in-sxsw-film-festival">Paris Zarcilla&#x27;s &#x27;Raging Grace&#x27; bags major prizes in SXSW film festival</a></div><p>He said the second movie in his &quot;Rage&quot; trilogy, titled &quot;Domestic&quot; is now in production.</p><p>&quot;Raging Grace&quot; is now streaming on Prime TV and Apple TV.</p>