this movie really be and a some of the commentator have say and a tour de force of mise en scene it be shoot with a distinctive hand hold camera style and feature some powerful performance ( most notably by ian gamazon a adam and a secular muslim american bear in the phillipines ) and and make exceptional use of it gritty noir setting of philippino urban slum . yet and the movie be ultimately extremely disappointing . cavite ultimately fail in two interconnected way . first and a a dramatic story and chiefly because it main character be irredeemably weak ( and the vicious and stereotype anti gay viewpoint portray tacitly build strength on this weakness ) . adam not only fail a a protagonist he be unable to affect the action in any way throughout the entire film but a a moral be . he shirk responsibility for his stark moral choice represent ultimately and he be willing to take decisive action to murder a large crowd of innocent people to save his own loved one and this miserable character be the only potentially oppositional voice that might at least rhetorically counter the unseen but omniscient and omnipotent abu sayaf spokesman . a a result and that terrorist mastermind directs every aspect of the film and and the erstwhile protagonist be utterly impotent and and indeed and evil . if adam fail completely to present an alternative or corrective to the ( allege ) abu sayaf propaganda and the cinematography seem equally complicit in it support for the terrorist vague and self satisfied critique of western society ( with it documentary footage of privation and social exclusion ) . so and the deck be stack from deuce to ace and and that be why the film so completely fail a a work of drama . but and secondly and this be also why the film fail morally as well . cavite go beyond consciousness raise in it vivid presentation of poverty and move toward a subtle and but deeply corrupt sympathy for revolutionary terrorism in the name of the people . the kind reading be that and with no effective counterweight to the faceless voice of the abu sayaf terrorist and the film fall victim to a sort of stockholm syndrome and crossing over completely into the terrorist view of the world . in fact and at the end and the film really lay it card on the table in a terrible and facile scene back in the usa and where adam be show to be victim of blatant american prejudice because of his religion . despite it technical achievement and this be an evil movie . it be wrong and it be destructive . by fail to offer an effective alternative to mass murder in the name of social revolution and this movie leave u with nothing beyond the vague but malicious terrorist viewpoint and without any dramatic or rhetorical attempt at rebuttal . the result be not only bad storytelling and but the nasty suspicion that one have watch an extremely well shot propaganda video for an hour and twenty minute . jeremiah b. c. axelrod .