Khavn

Directing

Khavn

Khavn, originally named Khavn de la Cruz, is a very outspoken, experimental filmmaker. He has directed over 100 films, making him one of the most productive filmmakers in the Philippines, and far beyond. He also heads up Kamias Overground, an independent publishing company, and works as a composer, songwriter, pianist and writer. Since 2002, he has been director of the .MOV International Film, Music & Literature Festival. As a jury member, he has been present at multiple festivals, including Berlinale and the Leipzig Film Festival.

Acting credits

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Die Liebe stört der kalte Tod

2026

The Family That Eats Soil poster
5.5

A strange and dysfunctional family sits down three times a day to a meal of soil.

The Family That Eats Soil

2005

Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore poster
6.3

Somewhere in Manila, a crime boss rules with an iron fist. To his most loyal henchman he gives the task of guarding his woman. Before long, she falls in love with the henchman, and the star-crossed lovers decide to leave town. Fighting ensues. It is while on the run that they finally get to know each other for the first time.

Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore

2014

Last Take, Last Shot poster
10.0

A black comedy film, which focuses on two film workers, Raffy, the clapper, and Dido, a utility boy. Both share the same dream: to direct their own films someday. Their lives as mere "small production people" took a different turn when, together with the people in the unit van they were riding,had an encounter with armed men. Their co-workers were killed, and the two of them were forced to drive the unit van out of fear until it ran out of gas. The van contains equipment for movie production like cameras, lights and film stocks. They ended up in a secluded barrio not yet reached by modern technology, and therefore, the townsfolk knew nothing of the movie industry.

Last Take, Last Shot

2005

Esoterica: Manila poster
NR

Drawing from his personal adventures, film director, Elwood Perez veers away from standard-issue plot conventions in this paradoxically moral tale of a young man en route to becoming a creative artist.

Esoterica: Manila

2014

Happy Lamento poster
NR

On the one hand, the beyond-Tropicália surreal, wild, ecstatic universe of Khavn de la Cruz, the Philippines’ internationally most venerated underground filmmaker. On the other, the Frankfurt School dialectics of Alexander Kluge, self-proclaimed arrière-guard eternal of 1960s modernist moviedom, Gandalf of all essay cinema. For Happy Lamento, Kluge mixed some of his weirder TV skits on electricity, the circus, revolution and early cinema (featuring Fassbinder-regular Peter Berling, theatre genius Heiner Müller, and DaDaism’s last man standing, Helge Schneider, among others) with some of the more outrageous scenes from Khavn’s 2016 Ang Napakaigsing Buhay Ng Alipato. Some 2017 G20 shots of Merkel and Trump et al inject the already heady brew with current affairs urgency.

Happy Lamento

2018

Goodbye My Shooting Star poster
NR

K. loves Ana. But Ana’s now gone. Once she was there. But not anymore. A chance encounter from their past leads to this new meeting between K. and Ana. A mix of music video, poetry reading, and offbeat romance – this is Khavn’s wildside romance.

Goodbye My Shooting Star

2006

Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember poster
6.4

A bunch of 10-year-old kids rob pedestrians and kill without a mercy. But after a failed bank robbery, the dangerous game comes to an end with twenty years of imprisonment. After two decades, they are released but soon begin to disappear one by one.

Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember

2016

Philippine New Wave: This Is Not a Film Movement poster
4.8

Documentary profiling the directors involved in the loose Philippine New Wave filmmaking movement.

Philippine New Wave: This Is Not a Film Movement

2010

Shock Me Shokoy poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Shock Me Shokoy

2017

Rizal's Makamisa: Phantasm of Revenge poster
NR

In this whimsical historical fresco, a counterpoint to today’s urgent political issues, the figure of the Filipino revolutionary Rizal is revisited in the light of early silent films.

Rizal's Makamisa: Phantasm of Revenge

2024

Bomba Bernal poster
NR

"This is not a film by Khavn". Bomba Bernal is the hardcore pornographic bomb handjobbed in the hidden love-hotels of Philippine cinematographic history detonated by the satirical deep throat of one of the greatest 20th century Filipino filmmakers, Ishmael Bernal (1938-1996).

Bomba Bernal

2025

Bahag Kings poster
NR

A post-silent film on the travails and camaraderie of King Black, King Red, King Blue, King Yellow, King Green, King Purple, & King Orange, the seven rainbow [bahag-hari] kings [hari] of ethnic g-string [bahag] descent. Bouncing in their kombi van, from nature’s forest to the city’s jungle, the Bahag Kings descend from being noble rulers to village idiots as they search high & low for the missing “Wala” [Nothing]. And see how they handled a true-to-life police arrest.

Bahag Kings

2008

Years When I Was a Child Outside poster
NR

Filmmaker John Torres describes his childhood and discusses his father's infidelities.

Years When I Was a Child Outside

2008

Illogical Patterns of a Logical Parallelism poster
NR

A silent film by Jet Leyco.

Illogical Patterns of a Logical Parallelism

2011

Behind the camera

Breather poster
NR

A touching ode to Leonardo de la Cruz, the filmmaker's late father, who died earlier this year of lung cancer at the age of 65, the film is a personal meditation of sorts. It is at once dark, yet not unrelieved by poetry on the mysteries of life, existence and mortality.

Breather

2011

Breather poster
NR

A touching ode to Leonardo de la Cruz, the filmmaker's late father, who died earlier this year of lung cancer at the age of 65, the film is a personal meditation of sorts. It is at once dark, yet not unrelieved by poetry on the mysteries of life, existence and mortality.

Breather

2011

Breather poster
NR

A touching ode to Leonardo de la Cruz, the filmmaker's late father, who died earlier this year of lung cancer at the age of 65, the film is a personal meditation of sorts. It is at once dark, yet not unrelieved by poetry on the mysteries of life, existence and mortality.

Breather

2011

Makbetamaximus poster
NR

“Double, double, toil and trouble,” indeed! Shakespeare’s punchiest tragedy gets a makeover in a way that only the prodigious Filipino multi-hyphenate Khavn De La Cruz could deliver. Unfolding in the Municipality of Marcos, Ilocos Norte and Khavn’s own Burroughsian Interzone of Mondomanila – also the title of the director’s crazed horror-comedy-crime drama, which premiered at IFFR 2012 – this mash-up of styles, genres, moods and atmospheres features a cast of over 100 performers and defies any easy description, even with so familiar a text. But as Khavn says of his source material, "Usually, word is king. Here, text is just one of the many cogs. It’s a column, a roof shingle, an ornament."

Makbetamaximus

2024

No artwork available
8.0

EDSA XXX takes us on a wild ride through the ups and downs, twists and turns in the life of one man’s downfall and the rise to fame of another. The present leader KULOG NEGRO has led the country to progress; his rallying call is championing poverty for the benefit of tourists and film festivals. But the well-meaning leader is a mere puppet in the political arena and someone has just decided that he has to go.

EDSA XXX: Nothing Ever Changes in the Ever-Changing Republic of Ek-Ek-Ek

2012

No artwork available
8.0

EDSA XXX takes us on a wild ride through the ups and downs, twists and turns in the life of one man’s downfall and the rise to fame of another. The present leader KULOG NEGRO has led the country to progress; his rallying call is championing poverty for the benefit of tourists and film festivals. But the well-meaning leader is a mere puppet in the political arena and someone has just decided that he has to go.

EDSA XXX: Nothing Ever Changes in the Ever-Changing Republic of Ek-Ek-Ek

2012

No artwork available
8.0

EDSA XXX takes us on a wild ride through the ups and downs, twists and turns in the life of one man’s downfall and the rise to fame of another. The present leader KULOG NEGRO has led the country to progress; his rallying call is championing poverty for the benefit of tourists and film festivals. But the well-meaning leader is a mere puppet in the political arena and someone has just decided that he has to go.

EDSA XXX: Nothing Ever Changes in the Ever-Changing Republic of Ek-Ek-Ek

2012

Simulacrum Tremendum poster
NR

The filmmaker is fairly young, otherwise you could say this extremely long film is Khavn’s life's work. Because it is so long and the maker is Filipino, you might think he is following in the footsteps of Lav Diaz, but this is very different, more experimental, documentary-surrealistic cinema. A collection of images like Jonas Mekas also makes, although Manila is not New York. Khavn started shooting this diary 22 years ago, and in the course of time he has made recordings with all sorts of cameras, from analogue video8 via mini-DV to iPhone. He does not present the recordings in chronological order, however.

Simulacrum Tremendum

2016

Filipiniana poster
NR

To reimage, rewrite, and reread my country’s bastard history, using dismembered icons and scenographies that both affirm and negate remembered mythology.

Filipiniana

2016

Filipiniana poster
NR

To reimage, rewrite, and reread my country’s bastard history, using dismembered icons and scenographies that both affirm and negate remembered mythology.

Filipiniana

2016

Gunam- Gunam X Guni Guni poster
NR

The amazing adventures of Gunam-gunam (Rumi) and Guni-guni (Phantasm). Adapted from the book Auxiliary Materials for Teaching the Filipino Language by Kelly Sta. Ana Nicolas (Philippine Normal College, 1964).

Gunam- Gunam X Guni Guni

2021

Gunam- Gunam X Guni Guni poster
NR

The amazing adventures of Gunam-gunam (Rumi) and Guni-guni (Phantasm). Adapted from the book Auxiliary Materials for Teaching the Filipino Language by Kelly Sta. Ana Nicolas (Philippine Normal College, 1964).

Gunam- Gunam X Guni Guni

2021

Gunam- Gunam X Guni Guni poster
NR

The amazing adventures of Gunam-gunam (Rumi) and Guni-guni (Phantasm). Adapted from the book Auxiliary Materials for Teaching the Filipino Language by Kelly Sta. Ana Nicolas (Philippine Normal College, 1964).

Gunam- Gunam X Guni Guni

2021

Three Days Of Darkness Zero poster
NR

The "prequel" to "Three Days Of Darkness" aka "Tatlong Araw Ng Kadiliman" starring Katya Santos, Gwen Garci, and Precious Adona. Khavn draws on the Book of Revelation for one of the most frightening phenomenon prophesied to happen. Three girls are trapped in their home as the Three Days of Darkness descend on the Earth and they must cope and try to fend off the demons that have come to take them. A chilling vision of God's Wrath or of people imposing God's Wrath on one another, the film frightens with its questions as much as it does with its visuals.

Three Days Of Darkness Zero

2005

Three Days Of Darkness Zero poster
NR

The "prequel" to "Three Days Of Darkness" aka "Tatlong Araw Ng Kadiliman" starring Katya Santos, Gwen Garci, and Precious Adona. Khavn draws on the Book of Revelation for one of the most frightening phenomenon prophesied to happen. Three girls are trapped in their home as the Three Days of Darkness descend on the Earth and they must cope and try to fend off the demons that have come to take them. A chilling vision of God's Wrath or of people imposing God's Wrath on one another, the film frightens with its questions as much as it does with its visuals.

Three Days Of Darkness Zero

2005

Headless poster
8.0

The start of the film sets the tone. A tortured man looks as if he will castrate himself. Later he staggers aimlessly and bleeding heavily through the streets of a town that is just waking up. In parallel, the film shows the marital discussions of a couple, with the husband hiding behind the camera.

Headless

2004

Headless poster
8.0

The start of the film sets the tone. A tortured man looks as if he will castrate himself. Later he staggers aimlessly and bleeding heavily through the streets of a town that is just waking up. In parallel, the film shows the marital discussions of a couple, with the husband hiding behind the camera.

Headless

2004

The Family That Eats Soil poster
5.5

A strange and dysfunctional family sits down three times a day to a meal of soil.

The Family That Eats Soil

2005

The Family That Eats Soil poster
5.5

A strange and dysfunctional family sits down three times a day to a meal of soil.

The Family That Eats Soil

2005

Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore poster
6.3

Somewhere in Manila, a crime boss rules with an iron fist. To his most loyal henchman he gives the task of guarding his woman. Before long, she falls in love with the henchman, and the star-crossed lovers decide to leave town. Fighting ensues. It is while on the run that they finally get to know each other for the first time.

Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore

2014

Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore poster
6.3

Somewhere in Manila, a crime boss rules with an iron fist. To his most loyal henchman he gives the task of guarding his woman. Before long, she falls in love with the henchman, and the star-crossed lovers decide to leave town. Fighting ensues. It is while on the run that they finally get to know each other for the first time.

Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore

2014

Nitrate: To the Ghosts of the 75 Lost Philippine Silent Films (1912-1933) poster
9.5

Lost cinema. Lost culture. Lost country. Lost people. How to recreate the past with nothing? Cinema of the impossible. The silent past is a horror film. The smell of nitrate in the morning. How many ghosts can the cinema contain? 75 films. 22 years. What is the numerological significance? Too late. Never too late.

Nitrate: To the Ghosts of the 75 Lost Philippine Silent Films (1912-1933)

2023

Mondomanila: Kung paano ko inayos ang buhok ko matapos ang mahaba-haba ring paglalakbay poster
5.4

Mondomanila tells the story of teenage anti-hero Tony de Guzman and the rough neighborhood he calls home.

Mondomanila: Kung paano ko inayos ang buhok ko matapos ang mahaba-haba ring paglalakbay

2010

Mondomanila: Kung paano ko inayos ang buhok ko matapos ang mahaba-haba ring paglalakbay poster
5.4

Mondomanila tells the story of teenage anti-hero Tony de Guzman and the rough neighborhood he calls home.

Mondomanila: Kung paano ko inayos ang buhok ko matapos ang mahaba-haba ring paglalakbay

2010