The film Silenced Nights is a reckoning with the Philippines’ drug war

A decade after Rodrigo Duterte launched his war on drugs, the Philippines is still grappling with its legacy of violence, fear and impunity. Inspired by the 2018 killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, Silenced Nights had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Screenwriter Troy Espiritu talks about telling the story through the eyes of a witness, the ethics of dramatizing real killings, and his own reckoning as someone who voted for Duterte in 2016.

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