WARLA

WARLA
by Kevin Alambra

90 MINUTES | Social Drama

CAST
Jervi Wrightson, Lance Reblando, Serena Magiliw, Valeria Ortega, Jacky Woo, Dimples Romana

PRODUCTION
DIRECTOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER – Kevin Alambra
SCREENPLAY – Arah Jell Badayos
CINEMATOGRAPHER – Neil Daza, LPS
PRODUCTION DESIGN – Marxie Maolen Fadul, PDCP
EDITOR – Ilsa Malsi
ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE – Paulo Almaden
SOUND DESIGN – Stage Post
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/PRODUCER – Sheron Dayoc
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER – Gretchen Que
LINE PRODUCER – Iana Bernardez
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR – Kristine Joi Bayan
PRODUCTION MANAGER – Mary Zapata

LOGLINE
Kitkat, a 19-year-old transgender woman, finds the family she’s been longing for in a gang of sisters who kidnap foreign men to fund their gender-affirming surgeries, until their crimes force her to question the true cost of belonging.

SYNOPSIS
Young Kitkat is taken in by Joice, who leads a group of transgender women kidnapping foreigners to fund gender-affirming surgeries that they believe will finally allow them to live as their true selves. Kitkat, however, does not feel the need to change her body to be a real woman. The others in the gang, like Luningning and Barbie Ann, carry the heavy scars of rejection, deep gender dysphoria, and painful memories of cruelty they have endured, making the surgeries feel like a lifeline. For Kitkat, who has never known acceptance from a family, finding belonging with these women is both healing and complicated, as she must confront the harsh and destructive choices the group makes. Loosely based on a true story, this crime drama explores how women who long to stop being preyed upon transform into perpetrators, carving out power in the only space they feel is left to them.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

For over a decade, my work as a storyteller has brought me into the lives of people often left unseen. As a head researcher and director for Maalaala Mo Kaya, Asia’s longest-running drama anthology, I learned the value of listening, truly, to stories of pain, strength, and hope. In my later work in documentary and television, I carried the same commitment: to give voice to those who are misrepresented, misunderstood, or forgotten.

When I first encountered the true events that inspired Warla, I felt both unsettled and deeply moved. Here were women who were denied safety, dignity, and opportunity, creating their own fragile version of family. Not in a way society approved of, but in the only way they believed possible. In speaking with many transgender women, I was struck not only by their hardships, but by something deeper, a longing to belong, to be cared for, to live fully.

The heart of Warla is not simply about being seen, nor about existing as a trans woman. Its message is more urgent: it is about living. Living one’s truth, claiming the power to choose, and daring to be fully alive despite the odds. This is not only a trans story, it is a human story. Because beyond gender or sexuality, isn’t this what we all long for? To live authentically. To be loved without condition and be cared for genuinely. To make choices that bring us closer to who we truly are.

That is why Warla is more than a crime drama, and more than a story about transgender identity. It is a story about survival, conscience, and the cost of family. It is about the universal struggle to hold on to dignity and love in a world that often refuses us a place to be alive. I hope this film becomes a mirror. Not only to society, but to ourselves. A reminder that the struggles of these women are not distant, but profoundly human. And I hope audiences walk away asking: What does it mean to truly live? What is the cost of belonging? And how far would I go to claim my place in the world?