Q&A with Anna Isabelle Matutina

Alice, a fiercely independent 40-year-old woman with a successful and noble career at an NGO, discovers she’s pregnant. On the outs with her moody, high-maintenance ex-boyfriend, and with no interest in raising a child, she jumps through the requisite hoops to arrange a safe abortion in a devoutly pro-life nation where it is illegal. The refreshingly multidimensional characters and their complex interpersonal relationships in director Anna Isabelle Matutina’s bold debut cover all the points and counterpoints of this sensitive issue. Alice’s overbearing mother and baby’s daddy relentlessly browbeat her to change her mind, further exacerbating her existential dilemma in a telling microcosm of the country’s own hypocrisies and struggles. Max Eigenmann’s award-winning star turn as Alice effortlessly drives home the urgent clarion call of Matutina’s smart and uber-timely film.