FEU film “Ang Embalsamador, Baliw, at Bangkay” competes at 10th Ngilngig Festival

 “Ang Embalsamador, Baliw, at Bangkay” (The Embalmer, the Madman, and the Corpse), a short film from Far Eastern University Department of Communication, has been officially selected to compete in the 10th Ngilngig Asian Fantastic Film Festival.

The film, which was produced as a final project for the Directing and Film Production class and competed at Sinepiyu last year, tries to answer, “What does it mean to truly exist when routine and rigid societal expectations slowly hollow us out from within?”

For director Jasper Tan, the solution lies in a dark, provocative intersection of death, obsession, and self-discovery.

The festival, scheduled to run from October 24 to 28 at the Cinematheque Centre Davao and The Green House Cinema in Davao City, celebrates a decade of showcasing bold genre cinema, strange encounters, and shifting realities.

This year’s edition gathers 50 short films from across Asia, split into three distinct categories: Third Eye (Shorts in Competition), Visions (Special Showcase), and Dimension (Exhibition).

“Ang Embalsamador, Baliw, at Bangkay” is one of ten selected works in the Philippine division of the Third Eye competitive section, together with “Bandage Poetry” by Ian Alfaras, “Yelo” (Ice) by Gab Rosique, “Manami guid man mag ** sa Mansion” (It Feels Really Good to ** in the Mansion) by Seb Valdez and Trini Garcia, “Memorare” by Pia Velonza, “Ako Ay May Lobo” (Out of Eden) by Siege Ledesma, “Pretend You’re My Girlfriend” by Ylac Provido, “Lumuluha ang Langit” (The Skies are Weeping) by Jean Louise Javier, “The Vanishing Fireflies” by JP Corton, and “Nagmanto” (Veiled) by Melver Ritz L. Gomez.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with different regional filmmakers, Tan’s film represents a defiant exploration of personal identity. Rather than treating death as an ending, the narrative uses the macabre as a canvas to question how much agency individuals retain over their own lives.

Tan shared that the film functions as a deeply personal act of rebellion. It confronts the silent battle against forced uniformity and external pressures that try to dictate who we ought to be.

“The embalmer’s journey is one of obsession, denial, and ultimately, rebirth – not in the traditional sense, but through the dissolution of self,” Tan explained.

“This story is my own dark take of struggles with identity where the dead hold the truth while the living exist in a hollow state,” the director added.

By framing the embalmer’s craft not merely as a profession but as a confrontation with suppressed truths, Tan pushes viewers to ask uncomfortable questions about their own day-to-day existence: “Are we truly living, or merely performing standard routines while our real selves remain buried?”

As the Ngilngig Asian Fantastic Film Festival marks its 10th anniversary, the inclusion of “Ang Embalsamador, Baliw, at Bangkay” underscores the festival’s ongoing commitment to daring, genre-bending storytelling. Audiences in Davao will have the chance to experience Tan’s haunting vision along with a tapestry of Asian genre shorts during the late October screenings.