Laila Dee

Batang Magdalena is a 1998 Filipino true-to-life drama film directed by Bing Reyas and stars Agatha Mulach, Karren Concepcion

A wealthy couple’s sacrificing adopted son, Alonzo (Christopher de Leon) and wayward biological son, Alvaro (Mat Ranillo III) vie for the love of the same woman, Estella (Vilma Santos).

A fashion model is torn between two men: her young boyfriend who is a self-centered fashion model and an older married man who is estranged from his domineering wife.

The story is simple, yet gripping in its telling by master director Cesar 'Chat' Gallardo. It is essentially about the brutalization of a man by his environment. In a run-in with the ruling hoodlums of the place Nanding (Fernando Poe, Jr.) kills one them and is sent to jail. While he is in prison, his sister and mother suffer indignities from the criminal kingpin of Isla Putting Bato and Nanding bolts jail on a mission of revenge. While on his quest for vendetta he meets another victim of Putting Bato's brutal society, Charito Solis, and they find in each other the tenderness and solace each was denied before.—BGP