Filmmaker E del Mundo's debut feature, «Once Upon a Time in the Philippines,» has been selected for the Asian Project Market at the Busan International Film Festival, bringing a harrowing chapter of Philippine history to one of Asia's most important film financing and co-production forums. The project is inspired by the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in modern history, and follows a young woman who is pulled into the events leading up to the killings and gradually shifts from unwilling witness to accomplice.
The Maguindanao massacre, which took place in November 2009, involved the ambush of a political convoy in the southern Philippines. Dozens of people were killed, including a large group of journalists who had been traveling to cover the filing of a gubernatorial candidacy. The incident remains a defining moment in discussions about press freedom and political violence in the country, and it has continued to shape Philippine public life and media discourse in the years since.
Del Mundo's film approaches that history through a personal, moral lens rather than a straightforward chronicle of the crime. By centering the story on a young woman who becomes entangled in the run-up to the massacre, the project examines how ordinary people can be drawn into complicity, a theme that resonates beyond the specific events of 2009. The shift from bystander to participant is presented as a gradual, unsettling process, placing questions of responsibility and guilt at the heart of the narrative.
The Asian Project Market, held within the Busan International Film Festival, is a key venue for filmmakers seeking financing, production partners, and international distribution. Projects selected for the market are typically in development or early production and use the event to connect with producers, sales agents, and festival programmers from across Asia and beyond. Inclusion in the market is often an important step for first-time feature directors, offering visibility and access to industry professionals who can help move a project toward completion.
For a debut feature, tackling the Maguindanao massacre carries significant weight. The subject matter is politically sensitive in the Philippines, and the film's focus on an individual's moral compromise rather than on the massacre itself suggests an approach that prioritizes psychological drama over reenactment. That choice may also help the project travel internationally, as it frames a national tragedy through a character-driven story that can be understood without deep prior knowledge of Philippine politics.
The selection also reflects a broader trend at major Asian film markets, where projects dealing with historical trauma, press freedom, and political violence have found receptive audiences among festival programmers and critics. Busan has long positioned itself as a platform for cinema from across the region, and the Asian Project Market is designed to support filmmakers whose work might otherwise struggle to secure financing.
Details about the film's cast, production timeline, and shooting schedule have not been announced. As a project in the market, «Once Upon a Time in the Philippines» is still in development, and its participation in Busan is intended to help secure the backing needed to move into production. For del Mundo, the market offers an early opportunity to present the film to the international industry and to begin building the partnerships that will determine how the story reaches audiences.
The project arrives at a time when questions about the safety of journalists and the consequences of political violence remain urgent in many parts of the world. By turning the Maguindanao massacre into the backdrop for a story about personal culpability, the film aims to connect a specific national tragedy to wider conversations about how individuals respond when violence becomes possible — and how easily a witness can become part of the machinery that makes it happen.