When the Chiong sisters were raped and murdered on an island in the Philippines in 1997, the police were under pressure to act fast. And they did – soon they had arrested seven young men, and charged them with the horrendous crime, to the gratitude of a public baying for blood. Amongst them was Paco Larranaga, a Filipino-Spanish student training to be a chef. In fact, he sat for exams on the very day the girls were abducted, 350 miles away. Despite 42 witnesses signing affidavits as to his whereabouts, the police interviewed none of them and Paco found himself locked up and sentenced to death, depicted as an over privileged thug by the public and media. Paco’s devastated family began a long campaign for justice, which was eventually taken up by human rights groups and authorities in Spain. Director Michael Collins skilfully tells the many twists and turns of Paco’s story, in the process exposing the farcical sham that constitutes Filipino justice.

(Sheffield)