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I’m very late to the party, but I finally saw Respeto and it’s awesome.

Hendrix (Abra) is a young man who lives in the slums of Pandacan, Manila. He has no prospects, except to get killed in the ongoing war against drugs. His world is a toilet: when police arrive to demolish their shanties, the residents fight back with shit and piss.

Hendrix whiles away his days with his friends Betchai (Chai Fonacier) and Payaso (Yves Bagadiong), and dreams of becoming a rapper. He joins rap battles where only the most savage FlipTop rhymers survive, and on his first attempt his misogynist verses are shredded by a woman. Ha! Then he crosses paths with Doc (Dido de la Paz), a broken-down old poet who runs a second-hand bookstore.

You think you’ve seen this movie, but you haven’t.

Tough, smart, honest, Alberto Monteras’s Respeto is what we need from the cinema in these dark times. It reminds us of the cycles of violence we are trapped in, and how every act of violence no matter how seemingly justified mires us deeper in this cycle. Certain aspects of the plot may be a stretch, but the magic of cinema is that we overlook these flaws because we are caught up in the moment.

Respeto is set in a vicious struggle for survival, but it rejects the miserablism of poverty porn to hold out a glimmer of hope. Art will not make you rich and famous. Art will not bring you love. Art will not even save you, but it will make you worth saving.