---
name: "Lino Brocka"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/lino-brocka"
fi1m_id: "lino-brocka"
imdb_id: "nm0110653"
tmdb_id: 535191
wikidata_id: "Q983322"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "7 April 1939"
died: "22 May 1991"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-26T00:01:56.076849+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Lino Brocka

## Identity

Lino Brocka

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/lino-brocka
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** lino-brocka
- **IMDb ID:** nm0110653
- **TMDB ID:** 535191
- **Wikidata ID:** Q983322
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lino_Brocka, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q983322, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0110653/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/535191

Director. Born 7 April 1939 in Pilar, Sorsogon, Philippines. Died 22 May 1991.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 7 April 1939, Pilar, Sorsogon, Philippines
- **Died:** 22 May 1991
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lino_Brocka, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q983322, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0110653/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/535191

## Fi1m on Lino Brocka

> Lino Brocka made melodramas that keep a ledger. In *Manila in the Claws of Light* and the films around it, ordinary people are worn down by the city and then somebody counts the money, and the anger in them has not cooled.

A man falls from the scaffolding in *Manila in the Claws of Light* (1975) and Lino Brocka does not cut away. A few minutes later the site is working again and the wage is what it was. That is his method in one scene: the terrible thing, then the ledger. He shot in Manila's streets, markets, building sites and shacks over drains, with a mix of stage-trained and untrained actors, and he is exact about rent and wages in a way few films of any kind are. Most directors treat the money as background. Brocka treats it as the plot.

He did not start there. He began in 1970 making commercial melodramas and genre pictures for studios such as Lea Productions, stopped around 1972 because the studios wanted things he did not, and came back in 1974 with his own company, Cinemanila, and *Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang*. *Manila in the Claws of Light* (1975) and *Insiang* (1976) brought him attention abroad. Then *Jaguar* (1979), *Bona* (1980), *Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim* (1984), *Macho Dancer* (1988) and *Orapronobis* (1989), each pushing the same concerns, poverty, exploitation, violence from the state and from vigilantes, into a different shape: family drama, crime picture, political thriller. He kept taking commercial work alongside, dozens of films, and not all of them are the ones he is remembered for.

What works is the marriage of two things he learned. From the theatre, with PETA, he learned how to make an actor hold a scene; from the street he learned what a scene costs. Hilda Koronel, who worked with him more than once, gets one long scene late in *Manila* that we will not describe. The last twenty minutes left us shaken, and the reason is plain: Brocka holds on her face past the point where most directors would have cut, and keeps holding. Bembol Roco, as the boy from the fishing village, spends most of the film being told what things cost and paying it. Conrado Baltazar shot several of the films; Ricky Lee and Pete Lacaba wrote *Jaguar* and *Macho Dancer*; Phillip Salvador became the face of the later pictures. Brocka came from Sorsogon himself, and the provincial boy who arrives in Manila with nothing is the character he understood best.

What does not always work is the melodrama. The villain in *Manila* is a broad type and the mystery plot dawdles, and critics have said the same, with less patience, of the more formulaic 1980s pictures. Some of the Filipino filmmakers who came after him find the whole style too theatrical, too tied to story. Told his films were too realistic and too disturbing, Brocka answered: "It's meant to be." We are inclined to take his side. Start with *Manila in the Claws of Light*, and do not expect to say much afterwards.

## Biography

Lino Brocka was a Filipino film director. After working in theatre and television he began directing feature films in 1970, initially making commercial genre pictures.

He gained critical recognition with *Manila in the Claws of Light* (1975) and *Insiang* (1976). In 1983 he founded the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, an organisation supporting artists addressing national issues. Brocka directed more than sixty films over two decades and was politically active during the Marcos era.

He died in a car accident in Manila on 22 May 1991.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, criterion.com, nytimes.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Manila in the Claws of Light* (1975), Fi1m 87, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/manila-in-the-claws-of-light.md)

## Complete filmography (77)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Lucia* (1992), Screenplay
- *How Are The Kids?* (1992), Director
- *Huwag Mong Salingin ang Sugat Ko* (1991), Story
- *Lampang Kerubin* (1991), Director
- *A Plea to God* (1991), Director
- *Biktima ng Ligaw na Sandali* (1991), Director
- *Spark in the Dark* (1991), Director
- *Maalaala Mo Kaya* (1991), series, Director
- *Sa Kabila ng Lahat* (1991), Director
- *Father, Why Have You Forsaken Me?* (1990), Director
- *Victim* (1990), Director
- *All Be Damned* (1990), Director
- *Dirty Affair* (1990), Director
- *When Forever Ends* (1990), Director
- *Babangon Ako't Dudurugin Kita* (1989), Director
- *Fight for Us* (1989), Director
- *When Will Sin Be Washed Away?* (1989), Director
- *Macho Dancer* (1989), Director
- *God Is Still Asleep* (1988), Director
- *Three Faces of Love* (1988), Director
- *Signed: Lino Brocka* (1987), Actor
- *I Carry the World* (1987), Director
- *Be Only Mine* (1987), Director
- *Beyond the Mainstream: A Salute to Philippine Independent Cinema* (1986), Actor
- *Napakasakit, Kuya Eddie* (1986), Director
- *What Is the Color of God's Face?* (1985), Director
- *White Slavery* (1985), Director
- *Miguelito* (1985), Director
- *This Is My Country* (1984), Director
- *Experience* (1984), Director
- *Your Body Is Mine* (1984), Director
- *Adultery* (1984), Director
- *Bona* (1984), Director
- *Hot Property* (1983), Director
- *Strangers in Paradise* (1983), Director
- *Cain and Abel* (1982), Director
- *Mother Dear* (1982), Director
- *Five and the Skin* (1982), Actor
- *Palipat-lipat, Papalit-palit* (1982), Director
- *In This Corner* (1982), Director
- *PX* (1982), Director
- *Caught in the Act* (1981), Director
- *Dalaga si Misis, Binata si Mister* (1981), Director
- *Hello, Young Lovers* (1981), Director
- *Bourgeois* (1981), Director
- *Controversial* (1981), Director
- *Angela Markado* (1980), Director
- *The Marriage* (1980), as Wedding Sponsor (uncredited)
- *Stolen Love* (1980), Director
- *Your Daughter's Mother* (1979), Director
- *Jaguar* (1979), Director
- *Mother, Sister, Daughter* (1979), Director
- *Heat* (1979), Story, Director
- *Rubia Servios* (1978), Director
- *Hayop sa Hayop* (1978), Director
- *Wake Up... Maruja* (1978), Director
- *My Father, My Mother* (1978), Director
- *The Dancer* (1978), Director
- *Mother* (1977), Director
- *Hush Now, Little Boy* (1977), Director
- *Insiang* (1976), Director
- *Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday* (1976), Director, Story
- *Mortal* (1976), as Face in the Dark
- *Dung-aw* (1975), Director
- *Manila in the Claws of Light* (1975), Director — Fi1m 87, [page](https://film.one/film/manila-in-the-claws-of-light.md)
- *Three, Two, One* (1974), Director
- *Weighed But Found Wanting* (1974), Story, Director
- *Cherry Blossoms* (1972), Director
- *Villa Miranda* (1972), Director
- *Stardoom* (1971), Director, Screenplay
- *Chain of Love* (1971), Director
- *Even the Angels Cried* (1971), Director
- *Now!* (1971), Director, Screenplay, Story
- *Dipped in Gold* (1970), Director, Screenplay
- *Santiago!* (1970), Story, Director, Screenplay
- *The Arizona Kid* (1970), Screenplay
- *Wanted: Perfect Mother* (1970), Screenplay, Director

## Gallery

- ![Lino Brocka](https://film.one/media/person/3919935/gallery-46e13e98a5cc.jpg) Lino Brocka — National Commission for Culture for Culture and the Arts, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/NAAW-Lino-Brocka_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Lino Brocka](https://film.one/media/person/3919935/gallery-937624739990.jpg) Lino Brocka — Image via TMDB
- ![Lino Brocka](https://film.one/media/person/3919935/gallery-1ffd13b1beec.jpg) Lino Brocka — Image via TMDB
- ![Lino Brocka](https://film.one/media/person/3919935/gallery-d715d2c6ec28.jpg) Lino Brocka — Image via TMDB
- ![Lino Brocka](https://film.one/media/person/3919935/gallery-62222e72ef9f.jpg) Lino Brocka — Image via TMDB
- ![Lino Brocka](https://film.one/media/person/3919935/gallery-5f1c0b07b346.jpg) Lino Brocka — Image via TMDB
- ![Lino Brocka](https://film.one/media/person/3919935/gallery-252f2eb936d3.jpg) Lino Brocka — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Other awards — 5 won

- National Artist of the Philippines 1997: National Artist of the Philippines (won)
- FAMAS Award for Best Director 1991: FAMAS Award for Best Director (won), for *Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak*
- Ramon Magsaysay Award 1985: Ramon Magsaysay Award (won)
- Sutherland Trophy 1984: Sutherland Trophy (won), for *This Is My Country*
- FAMAS Award for Best Director 1980: FAMAS Award for Best Director (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lino-brocka