Doclisboa and the Cinemateca Portuguesa will present a major retrospective devoted to Filipino filmmaker Lino Brocka during the festival’s 2026 edition, running in Lisbon from 15 to 25 October.

Titled «Lino Brocka – Kill the National Artist», the programme is curated by Filipino artist and filmmaker Khavn de la Cruz in collaboration with the programming teams of Doclisboa and the Portuguese Film Archive. Organisers describe it as one of the most extensive retrospectives yet dedicated to Brocka, whose career encompassed more than 60 films across just over two decades.

Brocka, who died in 1991, is regarded as a central figure in Philippine and Asian cinema. His work combined melodrama and popular filmmaking with direct engagement in the political and social realities of the Philippines, including urban poverty, inequality and repression under Ferdinand Marcos.

The retrospective is expected to include key titles such as Manila in the Claws of Light, Insiang, Jaguar, Bona, This Is My Country and Macho Dancer. A full line-up has not yet been announced.

Ahead of the October programme, Cinemateca Portuguesa will host an outdoor anticipation session on 17 July featuring Bona. The 1980 drama stars Nora Aunor as a young woman whose devotion to an exploitative actor becomes a study of obsession, social hierarchy and emotional servitude. The film has undergone significant international reappraisal and is now widely considered among Brocka’s defining works.

Beyond his filmmaking, Brocka was an outspoken defender of freedom of expression and an important cultural opponent of the Marcos dictatorship. His films remain influential for their fusion of political urgency, dramatic force and sustained attention to marginalised lives.

The retrospective is supported by the Philippine Embassy in Portugal and will form a central strand of the Doclisboa 2026 programme.