The Philippine Embassy in Abuja, led by Charge d’Affaires Roderico Atienza, participated for the third time in the Asian Film Festival in the Nigerian capital, showcasing “Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo”, a 2016 coming-of-age film directed by Mikh Vergara, on 21-25 November 2022 at the Chinese Cultural Center Abuja.

The screening of the contemporary film on 24 November 2022, which uses the traditional Filipino children’s game “patintero” as its setting, was made possible by the provision of the film rights by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) through its Philippine Embassies Assistance Program (PEAP).

The Embassy served Filipino street food and drinks such as beef lumpiang shanghai, a Filipino take on the famous egg or spring roll; a variant of tokneneng or deep-friend chicken eggs in batter; turon, a deep-friend banana roll; and samalamig, specifically sago’t gulaman, a traditional sweet chilled beverage featuring tapioca and black jelly.

The other films featured at this year’s Festival include At Last (China, 2021), Villa Dwellers (Lebanon, 2017), Parasite (Korea, 2021), Under the Bombs (Lebanon, 2007), Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale (Bangladesh, 2018), Lights from the East: I Am Maluku (Indonesia, 2014), The Milestone (Malaysia), and The Last Breakfast (Syria, 2021).

The Philippine Embassy joined the diplomatic missions of China, Iran, South Korea, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Syria in participating at the fourth edition of the Festival.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of the Philippines.