Think you’re having a bad day? Adam, a Philipino-American, is on his way to Manila for his father’s funeral when he learns, by telephone, that his pregnant girlfriend is having an affair and has decided to abort their unborn child. When no one meets him at the Manila airport, his frustration threatens to boil over until his backpack mysteriously begins ringing. He opens it to discover a manila envelope with a cell phone inside.

He answers. A voice in Tagalog tells him to look at pictures in the envelope: his mother and sister bruised, bound and gagged. Do as I tell you, the voice says, and they won’t be harmed. Don’t, and they’ll be tortured and killed.

And so it begins… The voice belongs to a member of Abu Sayyaf, a fundamentalist Muslim terrorist group, and he directs Adam on a series of “tasks” as he tries to break Adam’s spirit. Along the way, we are led on a visual tour of third-world life in Cavite, a province south of Manila.

The movie is shot guerilla style (filmed on location without permission or forewarning) and was made on virtually no budget. The camera constantly jiggles and bobs, with varying intensities, which at times adds to the frenetic nature of the movie. Other times it just annoys.

Cavite is not an escapist film. Its strength lies in the immediacy of the moment. Ian Gamazon, who co-wrote/directed/produced the film, plays Adam. While he won’t be getting any Oscar nominations, he is effective in conveying his character’s frustration, horror and impotence.

The backdrop of unstaged everyday life in the third world area is visually arresting: squatter camps, a huge cock fight arena, rivers inundated with sewage and people picking through it to survive ― and still, the golden arches of McDonalds often appear amidst the squalor. Gamazon and his co-writer/director/producer (and sole cameraman) Neill dela Llana do a masterful job in this respect.

The weakness of Cavite is that it is a one-trick pony. Despite some plot twists here and there, the basic dynamic between Adam and the terrorist does not change. There is, additionally, an infallible omniscience to the terrorist which eventually ceases to be believable, in an otherwise starkly realistic film.

Even though Cavite is only 80 minutes, it feels too long. Also, Adam does not change or grow much, which makes the story a little flat and unsatisfying when all is said and done.

But one cannot ignore that Cavite was made by two guys with a less than $7,000 budget (no, I did not forget a zero) and one camera. In that regard it is a remarkable film.

Regardless, despite its flaws, it well worth seeing for its rawness, its depiction of a hostage/terrorist situation without Hollywood glitter and the everyday scenes of the Philippines. Also, the constant interplay between the Tagalog speaking terrorist and the English speaking Adam (who is not comfortable speaking in his native tongue) works quite well. The intonations of the uncredited actor who voices the terrorist blend with the subtitles for a wonderfully seamless effect.

Cavite opens at Cinema Village on May 26th.

I give it ** ¾.