Short of the Week

These are concepts of short films that have not been realized for one reason or another. Our Brew hopes to produce the best one, turn it into a short film. The theme changes, but for now, it’s all about the overseas Filipino worker. After all, regardless of what the OFW does for a living, scrubbing toilets or wiping backsides of masters and mistresses, he has the economy of an entire country riding on his back.
If you have a terrific idea for a short film, send a few paragraphs to ourbrewphil@gmail.com or through facebook.com/ourbrewph. We will not correct your English, so make it good. If it pleases the editors, we'll publish it; if it's really good, we'll turn it into a short film. Oh, and our decision is final.

Cry in the Dark

It is past midnight, and the sodium street lamps cast a sallow yellowness over this middle eastern residential village, a yellowness that does not allow any other color to exist. The yellowness seeps into the house. It is a majestic home, even in the dark; you can see that it is a large house with furniture that is only appropriate in a cavernous, high-ceilinged house.

There is a creak of a door opening, and thin fingers emerge from the dark room, wrapped around the edge of the door, pushing it open. The yellow tinges the thin fingers.

We see bare feet slowly, tentatively, tiptoeing onto the cold, marbled expanse that is the living room. We catch a slight limp as she moves to the carpet.

A thin, shaking hand reaches for the telephone handset that is atop a corner table. As the other hand punches a key to dial, it stops momentarily, startled at the soft beep that the button makes.

She continues to finish the sequence of numbers. The phone is slowly lifted to the ear, and we now see the face of a youngish Filipino woman. The light from the window betrays the tears and the bruises and swelling. In a soft but emotionally-charged voice, she speaks to the other party.

Nay... gusto ko nang umuwi.

There is a weariness in her quivering voice. The girl is startled by a sound: someone has just entered the room.