Edsa - End to End

The EDSA - an abbreviation of Epifenio De los Santos Avenue - is a ten-lane motorway of 22 kilometres long, winding straight through city-of-millions Manila. The city's artery already served as a cart track 200 years ago. It produces chaotic scenes with thousands of stinking cars and busses, poor street vendors, beggars, and stallholders, but also with rich industrialists, soldiers, and members of parliament who are hurrying to the other side of town in their limousines. Nowhere in Philippine society are the contradictions as clearly visible as along this road. The main character of Edsa - End to End is Satur Ocampo, a political activist who has been in jail for 12 years on account of incorrect, never proven charges. The background of the film is the daily life along the EDSA motorway at the time of the presidential elections in May 1992. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)