Sung-a Yoon’s stylised documentary of Filipina
Women training to work overseas is a powerful study of loneliness
As a study of loneliness and suppressed fear, this stylised documentary from the Korean-born director Sung-a Yoon could hardly be improved on. It is a study of a training school in the Philippines for what are known as OFWs, or Overseas Filipino Workers. They are live-in maids who take two-year contracts, typically in the
Middle East, and are prized for their submissive, hardworking attitudes and their perceived reluctance to make a fuss if they are abused. The women here recall that President Duterte himself has praised OFWs as “heroes” for bringing foreign currency into the Philippines.
The film shows them learning how to do domestic work: cleaning, cooking, bathing children and elderly or disabled adults. It shows these women being lectured on how they must prepare for their terrible isolation and being separated from their children. Startlingly, the documentary also shows the role-play classes showing them how to absorb the abuse they will inevitably get, taking turns to play the mean mistress or master of the house shouting about how the bathroom has not been properly cleaned. They are told: “Never cry in front of your employer; it shows weakness. Filipinos are not weak.”