
Refrains Happen Like Revolutions in a Song
Sarah is a debt collector who lives among the inhabitants of the village of Guimbal on the island of Panay. She wants to find the young man who appeared to her in a dream and goes to the island of Negros. Here, as she interacts with the inhabitants, Sarah continues her search, gathering memories of life and war, dreams, myths, legends, songs and stories that she takes part in and at times revolve around her. She is the daughter of an ancient mermaid, a revolutionary, a primordial element, a virgin who was kidnapped and hidden away from the sunlight. “The film is a retelling of fragments of the American occupation. Dialogue, shot in the Hiligaynon language, is not translated but used as a tonal guide and a tool for narration. Using unscripted scenes shot where the main character was asked to merely interact with the villagers, I discard dialogue and draw meaning from peoples’ faces, voices, and actions, weaving an entirely different story through the use of subtitles and inter-titles.”
Where to Watch
Availability: United States
No regional provider information is available for United States.
Streaming availability data provided by JustWatch.
Top Cast
Crew
More Like This

Van Gogh: Painted with Words
2010 · ★ 7.3

All That Breathes
2022 · ★ 6.9

Life in a Day
2011 · ★ 7.2

McQueen
2018 · ★ 7.4

Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee
2016 · ★ 6.6

My Mom Jayne
2025 · ★ 8.0

The U.S. vs. John Lennon
2006 · ★ 6.6

Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
2017 · ★ 6.4

Capital in the Twenty-First Century
2019 · ★ 6.5

To Kill a Tiger
2023 · ★ 7.6

Fuck
2006 · ★ 6.4

Tabloid
2011 · ★ 6.4

The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story
2019 · ★ 7.3

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000 · ★ 7.8

4 Little Girls
1997 · ★ 7.1

Seduced and Abandoned
2013 · ★ 6.2

The Class of ‘92
2013 · ★ 7.1

The Godfather Family: A Look Inside
1990 · ★ 7.8

Seven Up!
1964 · ★ 7.2

A Toxic Love Story
2026 · ★ 6.5
More from This Director

The Remotes
2026

People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam Rose
2016 · ★ 1.0

Lukas the Strange
2013 · ★ 5.8

Todo Todo Teros
2006 · ★ 5.2

Years When I Was a Child Outside
2008

Room in a Crowd
2023 · ★ 6.0

We Still Have to Close Our Eyes
2019 · ★ 2.0

Very Specific Things at Night
2011

Hai, They Recycle Heartbreaks in Tokyo so Nothing's Wasted

Study on Lukas in Lukas the Strange
2012

Muse
2011

Tawidgutom
2004

Silent Film
2011

After Nonoy Estarte, a certain Orpheus, and those flowers in Dahilayan that accompanied this other sense they told me about
2017

Salat