In the five years since her breakout Lingua Franca, Isabel Sandoval has jumped into shorts and TV directing, but now she’s finally set her feature follow-up. Kicking off production next month in the Philippines, her fourth feature is the romantic noir Moonglow, which the director describes as “in the vein of In a Lonely Place and Casablanca” and combines “the gritty world of Philippine crime and politics” with “lush romanticism”.
Starring Arjo Atayde, the 1960s-set film takes place in Manila and follows “a jaded female police detective, who unbeknownst to her colleagues is the mastermind behind a successful heist, but who is paired up with an obsessively truth-seeking detective partner to crack the very crime that she orchestrated,” Deadline reports.
“In the midst of my involvement in various U.S. projects, my storytelling always finds its way back to the heart of my homeland,” said Sandoval. “The film is about the tragedy of losing one’s moral compass, an elegy to the death of idealism and sense of integrity within oneself. It subverts noir conventions with its subtle feminist bent.”
Expect a 2025 premiere for the project.