Film Synopsis: Delikado

A captivating journey into the El Nido forest, where a group of Filipino land defenders risk their lives fighting for environmental justice.

Delikado means ‘dangerous’ in Tagalog, and danger suffuses every frame of this riveting documentary following the fearless Filipino ‘para-enforcers’ confronting illegal loggers in El Nido, Palawan – one of the most fatal places in the world to be a land defender. A gripping dissection of systems of political violence and economies of exploitation, Delikado bears urgent witness to those who take their lives in their hands every time they step into the forests of El Nido – viscerally capturing the indescribable risk and desperation they face as the only protectors of the Philippines’ last ecological frontier.

Content notes: Discussions of violence and drug use/trafficking; depictions of death, dead bodies, and grief.

Access notes: Mainly bright images; some explanatory dialogue in English but most dialogue in Tagalog; brief flash photography towards the end of the film; some abrasive sounds (chainsaws, gunshots).

WATCH, READ, THINK, ACT

Our friends at Lighthouse Books have put together specially-curated reading lists for a selection of films, inviting us to delve deeper into the issues explored in our line-up. Here you’ll find a list of books recommended by Jessica relating to Delikado which delves deeper into the historical and political context in the Philippines, as well wider issues of environmental justice in response to the film.