Archive of films Ode to Nothing / Oda sa wala
Philippines
2018, 92 min
Section:
Official Selection - Competition
Year: 2019
It seems as if nothing can upset Sonya’s routine. No-one cares about the ageing funeral shop owner anymore, except when she provides discounts on flowers and coffins. One day a body belonging apparently to no-one finds its way to her shop, and Sonya develops a highly unusual relationship with it. An inscrutable, tender and bitterly comic film about the desire for companionship.
Synopsis
Middle-aged Sonya leads an uneventful life. She gets up, goes to work, takes care of her father – who is foundering in his own little world – and then goes to bed. Her mundane existence is no longer disrupted even by mourners who occasionally turn up at the failing funeral shop Sonya is trying to keep afloat, albeit with ever waning enthusiasm. And then something happens to ripple the surface. A body appears on the doorstep one day and there’s no-one to claim it. The dead woman’s solitude reminds Sonya of the loneliness she herself is struggling with, and a friendship emerges which goes beyond unusual. Ode to Nothing is a meticulously composed, inscrutably tender film about the desire for companionship and about myths that don’t deserve to be exposed.
Anna Kořínek
About the director

Dwein Baltazar. Filmography: Mamay Umeng (2012), Gusto Kita with All My Hypothalamus (2018), Ode to Nothing (Oda sa wala, 2019)
Contacts
Epicmedia Productions, Inc.
10 Matipuno Street, 1112, Quezon City, Metro Manila
Philippines
Tel: +63 917 620 8253
E-mail: [email protected]
www: epicmedia.ph
About the film
Color, DCP
International premiere
Section: | Official Selection - Competition |
---|---|
Director: | Dwein Baltazar |
Screenplay: | Dwein Baltazar |
Dir. of Photography: | Neil Daza |
Music: | Richard Gonzales |
Editor: | Dwein Baltazar |
Art Director: | Marxie Maolen Fadul |
Producer: | Carlo Katigbak, Olivia M. Lamasan, Bianca Balbuena, Iana Celest Bernardez, Kriz Gazmen, Marizel Samson-Martinez, Eduardo Lejano Jr., Manet Dayrit |
Production: | Black Sheep, Epicmedia Productions Inc, Quezon City Film Development Commission |
Cast: | Marietta Subong, Joonee Gamboa |
Contact: | Epicmedia Productions, Inc. |
www: | https://www.epicmedia.ph/oda-sa-wala |
Guests

Bianca Balbuena
Producer

Kriz Anthony Gazmen
Producer

Dwein Baltazar
Film Director

Olivia Lamasan
Producer

Jo Andrew Torlao
Film Institution Rep.