| Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek (at the Toronto International Film Festival 2007) Director: Brillante Mendoza
Starring: Jiro Manio, Kristoffer King, Coco Martin, Nathan Lopez, Jaclyn Jose In-a-nutshell:
Set in the slums of Manila, The Philippines, amidst the unwashed street crime of petty thieves and the seasoned corruption of a congressional campaign, Slingshot opens in a flashlight frenzy as locals pre-warn junkies, "jammers," snatchers, gays and drunks of an incoming police raid. Shot in the rapid single-camera style of a documentary, the cameras jolt and jump as local authorities round up the local male population, stripping them and sorting them on the basis of their tattoos. The vans into which the criminals are corralled are moving billboards advertising and advocating those councilors who are tough on crime. Down at the stations, however, the criminals are released by rival councilors in exchange for an assurance of their vote. As for world relevance, how familiar is the fact that the poor and persecuted are pawned for votes? This is a society that hedges all sides of each bet - prayer for the luck of lotteries is supplemented by games and gambling on the streets while people's day-to-day necessities are harvested by hocking stolen goods; future hopes and dreams are driven by an underlying faith in Jesus and Allah... or in the children left on filthy floors to eat their own feces as daddy gets high. This is not so much a movie as a moving portrait - complex and complete - hopeless and honest - into the underbelly of a society that could be as at home beneath a city as within it. The footage is raw and realistic, and the pace is sustained throughout. Although interesting on its own, the film can be seen to fail if compared to the riches of South African Academy Award-winner Tsotsi or Fernando Meirelles's widely lauded City of God - both of which not only boldly brought us the chaos, but delved more than superficially into the characters responsible for all the pain. | 
