Venice 2021: The Wire meets Scorsese in Filipino director’s corruption and murder epic On The Job: The Missing 8, soon to be an HBO miniseries
- Inspired by a real event, the Ampatuan massacre of 56 journalists in the Philippines in 2009, The Missing 8 tells a story of small-town corruption and murder
- With a meta-documentary approach like that of The Wire and a soundtrack of lounge tunes, it is ‘an homage to American gangster films’, director Erik Matti says
Eight years after Philippine crime drama On the Job premiered as part of Directors’ Fortnight at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, writer-director Erik Matti will unveil his much anticipated sequel at the Venice International Film Festival this week.
On the Job: The Missing 8 will debut in the festival’s prestigious main competition in a sprawling 208-minute director’s cut, before being reworked, together with its predecessor, into a six-part HBO Asia miniseries that will be available to stream from September 12.
On the Job followed a pair of incarcerated prisoners, Tatang (Joel Torre) and his protégé Daniel (Gerald Anderson), who are periodically released to operate as hitmen for corrupt government officials. The deal gives them extra income and a few precious hours on the outside to visit with friends and family, while their long-term sentences provide the perfect cover.
Matti’s sequel uses the microcosm of a small-town mayoral election for a wider examination of the widespread corruption that infects all areas of life in the Philippines.
“The Missing 8 is inspired by the Ampatuan massacre, the story of 56 journalists who just disappeared,” Matti explains in an interview with the Post.