Luyag ‘Da’ra’y Anino (A Kingdom of Shadows)
Christopher Gozum *based on a true story
Language of Dialogues: Pangasinan, Arabic, Iloko with English subtitles
Story, Screenplay, & Direction: Valentina Vidal
Shooting Location: Dhofar Mountains, Oman
Style and Narrative Structure: A poetic film with an episodic structure
*Inspired by a true story
Leonora Perez (63), a Filipino migrant worker employed as a shepherdess for a family farm is stranded on a remote mountain village in a Middle Eastern country for twenty one years. She endures the harsh mountain cold, threats of imprisonment and deportation from the authorities, homesickness, unpaid salaries that has accumulated over the years, near insanity, and isolation in a foreign country that is hostile, while at the same time, a country that is holy and beautiful.
Leonora earns a small monthly salary of 180 USD which she sends regularly to her family in the Philippines. Her meager salary was able to feed her family throughout the years and it was also able to send her only daughter Rubirosa to the university. Leonora?s faith in God, her unconditional love for her family, and her golden heart makes her endure all the hardships in the host country for 21 years.
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