Tribe

In the darker side of Manila-by-night, tribes of youthful gangsters roam the streets in search of quick fixes and precarious thrills. World-weary Tondo throbs to the beat of of hiphop and freestyle gangsta rap, and to the scents and sensations of drugs and sex and violence. We witness this crepus-cular underworld through the eyes of ten-year-old Ebet. We follow him as he witnesses the deadly lives of teen age gang members in Tondo and the events that lead to their explosive confrontation. The Thugz Angels tribe members chance upon a blood-soaked body of a member of another gang. Police arrest a Thugz Angels member for the murder. The murdered teen is a member of the Sacred Brown Tribe, whose leaders vow to avenge their fallen member. They learn that Diablos gang members killed the SBT neophyte. During the wake, SBT members forge a reluctant alliance with the Thugz Angels, and assemble to raid the Diablos lair. The Diablos are older, bigger, and confident of their fighting prowess. They know that they are being targeted for revenge and prepare accordingly. Ebet lurks throughout the story, an enigma that is part innocent child and cynical adult. His loyalties are a mystery, and all that is clear to us is his love for his drug-addicted mother. As the clock ticks towards midnight, guns are loaded, and knives are sharpened. The battle is about to begin! And this is just part of the story. Hailed as a gritty portrayal of Manilas notoriously violent streets of Tondo, Jim Libirans Tribu is an ultra-realist depiction of youth corrupted by violence, death and decay, told documentary-style and punctuated by the poetically-charged street poetry of the cast. Realist Cinema with a social project. The filmmaker employed real-life gang members as lead actors in this film. These gangs were from rival clans working together to finish this difficult project triggered a wave of unification and peace in a large part of Tondo's ghettos.