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PORTSIDE CULTURE

A NEW DARK DRAMA PUTS A SOMBER, INCISIVE SPIN ON THE WHITE LOTUS’
SHTICK  
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Monica Castillo
August 28, 2026
AV Club
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_ Exploring two different views of a golf club, Filipiñana unearths
deeper harm than any season of the resort comedy. _

, Photo: Kino Lorber

 

Rafael Manuel’s _Filipiñana_ looks as pretty as a postcard, but
like Mike White’s series _The White Lotus_
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its shiny veneer hides something much more sinister. Set at a posh
Philippines golf course where visitors from around the world come to
get some tee time, the luxury destination isn’t dissimilar from the
all-inclusive resorts featured in the HBO comedy. The pair follow
guests and workers alike to explore the two sides of this fabricated
escape, where one class is meant to enjoy it while the other breaks
their back to create an illusion of rest and relaxation. But while
_White Lotus_ mostly gorges on the interpersonal drama and broad
comedy of its rich clientele, _Filipiñana _takes a decidedly subdued
approach. The film follows the life of one uniformed worker and one of
the club’s guests, using understated performances and visually
striking compositions to point out the absurdity of these spaces.
While the series is interested in the upstairs/downstairs dynamics for
the punchlines, Manuel’s somber film uses stillness to reflect on
and critique the inequality as no laughing matter. 

Yet, the first scene of _Filipiñana_ could be right out of _White
Lotus_. A sweltering bus of tourists is led by a cheerful guide
struggling to engage her stone-faced passengers. Outside, the sounds
of Manila’s city life are noisy, crowded—everything these tourists
are escaping. Once at the golf course, a serene quiet takes over as
the camera soaks in the sun rising over manicured hills and water
features. Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto), a teenager from a rural part of
the country, is savoring one last moment to herself before reporting
to work as a “tee girl,” a lowly spot in the pecking order of the
club. Her job is to hand-place the ball so that all those at the
driving range have to do is swing, and she stays seated close to the
ground in order to quickly and efficiently move the ball into
position. It’s a humiliating position, one that Manuel’s camera
films between the legs of the golfers she’s assisting, making them
look like they’re towering over her small frame.

The club’s president, Dr. Palanca (Teroy Guzman), engages Isabel in
conversation, which she’s not used to, and she becomes a bit smitten
after getting attention from one of the club’s top brass asking her
personal questions. It’s the most personal conversation Isabel will
have all day. While the story flits between the two sides, the guests
and the workers, Manuel’s film centers Isabel’s experience,
largely showing this privileged world from her perspective. This POV
shift makes _Filipiñana_ more aware of the workers’ plight than the
amount of time _White Lotus_ spends with, say, Belinda Lindsey
(Natasha Rothwell), the masseuse who dreams of starting her own
business, even if she is the most sympathetic character in the series.

At one point, Isabel picks up a side quest to return one of Dr.
Polanca’s forgotten golf clubs, and like a key, the president’s
golf club opens up portions of the club not usually accessible to
her.  This contrast in access for guests and workers mirrors
Belinda’s journey from the first season of _White Lotus_, where she
and her dream are abandoned by the whims of her wealthy would-be
benefactor, to her experience in season three
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where she’s allowed to enjoy the resort as a guest. With club in
hand, Isabel gets to participate in a dance and sample a dessert by
the pool, which is a tasty upgrade from her meager fish and rice lunch
earlier in the employee cafeteria. But that taste of the sweet life is
more than a stolen meringue; it represents the luxuries she’s
surrounded by but can never enjoy, watching hungrily as the
president’s son declines a slice of cake after lunch. In her mint
uniform, she’s treated as part of the club’s décor. Her only
respite is finding solidarity with other coworkers, gossiping about
guests, and taking smoke breaks.

Elsewhere on the lush putting green, another young woman faces how
differently things are done in the Philippines. Clara (Carmen
Castellanos) is back home after studying in New York, golfing with her
uncle (Carlos Siguion-Reyna), who offers her the chance to join his
golf equipment company. Throughout the day, she looks uncomfortable
from more than just the heat. She’s struck by how hard their caddies
are working, carrying all of their equipment and even sitting in the
back of the golf cart so as not to sit with their charges. In a
passing comment to her uncle, Clara admits she’s only golfed on a
public course back in the U.S. Her uncle responds that there are no
such things as a public golf course there, meaning that all of the
staff who can’t afford the club have likely never had the chance to
play the game they spend their waking hours enabling. Isabel is even
reprimanded for lying out in the sun on the golf course because as a
“tee girl,” she’s not even allowed on the green turf to relax.

Clara eventually represents a common character in _White Lotus_, where
few guests even register that other people are working around the
clock to accommodate their every request and whim, and their bad
behavior towards employees is played as buffoonery. _Filipiñana _is
more concerned with cutting observations about the workers’
experiences. In one simple shot, Manuel shows the tee girls taking a
crowded siesta in the languid midday heat. They are so cramped, they
barely have room apart from each other. Yet, in the next shot,
Isabel’s boss is sitting comfortably in her air-conditioned room
watching TV on her break. In another scene, one of Isabel’s
coworkers explains that part of the caddies’ job is to fish balls
from the ponds, because the balls are worth more than what they make
in a day. These are subtle, almost throwaway moments, but they add
much more texture to the film and its characters than _White Lotus_’
few token moments focused on workers, whose stories often feel
sidelined in favor of the messier, wealthier characters.

While each season of the show and the movie share a similar ending, a
murder, how someone dies in these well-tailored environments is
approached quite differently. In _White Lotus_, each season opens on a
dead body, teasing an inevitable outcome until its climactic season
finale reveals how the murder happened. It’s another punchline, its
job to puncture the illusion that this idyllic getaway is a dream when
it can just as easily turn into a nightmare. The murder in
_Filipiñana _isn’t a gag. It’s an accident, quickly swept under
the rug by getting rid of a body on one of the course’s ponds.
It’s a stilted scene that’s chillingly cold and awkward, almost
like a school play where most of the actors are stiff and barely move.
The seemingly casual way the body is disposed of is reminiscent of the
Philippines’ colonial subjugation and ongoing violence towards its
citizens. The legacy is touched upon subtly in the movie, especially
when Isabel is walking through a part of the club forbidden to
employees showcasing old photos of the club that dates back decades,
likely to the Marcos regime.

The practice of covering up the rich’s misdeeds is nothing new, but
it’s a particularly poignant note for _Filipiñana _to end on,
thinking of how the Marcos family tried to give the impression of
wealth to the world while hiding its cruelty to the Filipino people,
the ones who, decades later, voted in the next Marcos generation so
that the cycle of violence continues. Although _Filipiñana_ is dreamy
and full of surreal imagery, Manuel’s visual style isn’t meant to
make the audience laugh at the rich and feel good about themselves,
nor to revel in lightly critiqued wealth porn. It’s an invitation to
look closer and question why these systems are still in place.

* Filipiñana
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* class warfare
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* Inequality
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* the Philippines
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* golf
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* exploitation
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