Remnants of a Revolution

Pepe Luneta, founding member of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has not seen his son, Bambam, in over 20 years. Since fleeing the country in the 90’s to seek asylum in Germany, Pepe has lived alone and only communicates with his son through letters and phone calls. With his health fast declining, Pepe dreams of seeing Bambam one last time before he dies.

When Bambam is unable to secure a passport due to problems with his legal documents, his partner and the film’s director-narrator, Cha, flies to Germany on his behalf. As she looks after Pepe in the hospital, Cha and Pepe bond over his stories of the early years of the Communist Party and the idealistic spirit that pervaded the movement. At one point, Pepe starts to vaguely refer to a “past mistake,” one that would haunt Cha until she leaves Germany.

Back in Manila, events lead Bambam and Cha to Pepe’s former comrades, whose testimonies shed light on the lives lost and the blood shed by Pepe’s “mistake,” and slowly paint a picture of a complex man, far from the straightforward hero Bambam had always known him to be.

Remnants of a Revolution is a record of a father and son’s journey to confront, and to come to terms with, a violent past. The film ponders the nature of man – what makes him embrace idealogy and how this ideaology takes over his psyche. Finally, Remnants of a Revolution asks: Can one venture so far into the heart of darkness beyond redemption?