GOING SOMEWHERE

Mike Hadland, a 55-year-old documentary filmmaker, was brought up by a single parent in suburban Britain the 1950's and feels lost and abandoned in 2008.

He travels to South East Asia to make a film about the first circumnavigation of the world. His documentary idea is about the arrival and death of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan in Cebu in the Philippines in 1521. He plans to follow Magellan’s journey to Cebu, where he will interview contemporary Filipinos about the legacy of the Spanish occupation and what it means to them today.

Subliminally he has conceived and developed the film because it will take him to the country where his father fled to 50 years earlier, when he abandoned Mike and his mother.

At his home in Newcastle, Mike has been chatting on a 'Filipino Wives' website with a young woman called Maricel, late into the night.

He visits his friend, Diego, in the South of Spain to discuss the project. He organises an interview with a well-known academic from Seville University, an expert on the Spanish occupation of the Philippines, and starts work on his film. In Spain he realises that Diego has moved on with his life and will not travel with him to the Philippines.

Finally he arrives in Cebu and starts work, with a small team of Filipinos filmmakers, on the documentary. He also meets a range of characters in Cebu, including the woman from the website, Maricel and a con man called Raul.

Mike gets intrigued and captivated by the night life of Cebu, with its seedy clubs and dangerous atmosphere. Raul introduces him to a young girl who works in a nightclub, who calls herself, #32. He starts a relationship with her at the same time as seeing Maricel and getting to know her family.

One night he is confronted by Raul who tells him that #32 is his sister and that she is only 13 years old. Raul demands money. This knowledge fills Mike with fear, remorse, quilt and self hate. He escapes into drugs and becomes dependent on them. His work suffers and he loses all his new friends.

His documentary falls apart and he becomes isolated and desperate. He visits a shaman who takes him into his past. Slowly he emerges from his despair into understanding that he needs to tell a different story … his own.