'Cavite' is a relentless thriller

Smart, tense, raw and uncompromising, "Cavite" throws you into a verité first-person nightmare with the bruising, single-minded intensity of "The Blair Witch Project" and the topical fervor of today's headlines.

Truly Indie 'Cavite' 3 out of 5 stars The verdict: Urgent, intense, immediate. Directors: Ian Gamazon, Neill Dela Llana Starring: Ian Gamazon, Dominique Gonzalez, Jeffrey Lagda Run time: 80 minutes Release date: May 26, 2006 Rating: Not rated. On the web Official movie site Rate 'Cavite'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana's psychological thriller follows one man's descent into the scary gloaming of Islamic terrorism. The twist is that the terrorists, who hold the young man Adam's sister and mother hostage, are in the Philippines, where Islamic fanaticism has carved pockets of lethality equal to those in the Middle East.

At the Manila airport, Adam (Gamazon, whose distress is palpable), a Filipino American arriving for his father's funeral, takes the terrorists' call. From that moment on he is umbilically attached to his cell phone as the captors omnisciently dictate his every move. They march him through a sick treasure hunt that culminates in an agonizing moral choice, thrusting into relief gnarled notions of Islamic belief and ethnic pride.

With the hyperactive visual spunk born of handheld immediacy, the filmmakers evoke a squalid, sometimes sickening sense of dislocation shrouded in gut-twisting dread. This powerful film suffers only from its relentless insularity, high-concept taken to claustrophobia. But that's sort of the point: to drop you into its panicked reality and shake you rawly to the core.

"Cavite" received a Special Jury Award at the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival and earned the gifted tyro filmmakers Someone to Watch recognition at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film was presented at festivals by John Pierson's advanced producing class at the University of Texas, which helped land it a distribution deal with Truly Indie.