This March, Hilda Koronel Returns to the Philippine Cinemas with Sisa
Hilda Koronel as Sisa in Sisa (2025). Courtesy of The IdeaFirst Company
Months after its European premiere, Sisa finds its way home to the Philippines.
Last November, director Jun Robles Lana’s Sisa (2025) made its European debut at the 29th Tallinn black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, as part of the “Official Selection – Competition” category. This March, the film returns home to the Philippines, and with it, marks the return of veteran actress Hilda Koronel to the country’s cinemas.
A film set during the tail end of the Philippine-American War, the film follows the titular character of Sisa, a woman who became a “madwoman” as a strategy to exact revenge on American soldiers. “To those asking: No, this is not Rizal’s Sisa. However, the name is a deliberate allusion,” Robles Lana clarifies on Instagram. “Rizal understood that ‘madness’ isn’t always a failure of the mind. Sometimes, it’s the only honest response to an oppressive system.”
The film’s cast is already enough to generate buzz, with Koronel playing the lead, alongside supporting actresses Eugene Domingo, Jennica Garcia, Tanya Gomez, Angellie Sanoy, Barbara Miguel, Jorrybell Agoto, and Janina Mendoza. In another Instagram post, the director gushes about working with Koronel. “I’ve been in awe of this face since I first saw her in Insiang. It means a great deal to frame her again,” he writes, posting a side-by-side frame of Koronel in Insiang (1976) and Sisa. His muse also shares the same depth of admiration for him. “He’s a very good director, and I love working with him,” Koronel says in a Vogue Philippines interview.
The actress also shares a message for the audience. “I want them to first enjoy the film because it’s a thriller. But I want them to understand the past, to see how our history is, of course, they’re always written by the victors,” she says. “What’s happening to Sisa was, I said, what’s happening to the entire country. So symbolic yun. So marami kayong matutunan dito, history-wise. (You’ll learn a lot here, history-wise.)”
As the film hits the silver screens on March 4, Robles Lana makes it clear who the film is for. “Sisa is for the people at the fringes. Every nation is built on their lives, even when their names are eventually lost or forgotten,” he writes in a post. “Those who occupy us and the ‘strongmen’ who follow always believe they can use fear to hold onto power and rewrite the truth. But they cannot bend history. The truth always has a way of resurfacing, proving that no empire or ego lasts forever.”
Sisa will be in cinemas nationwide starting on March 4, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Set during the Philippine-American War, Sisa follows a woman who wanders into a fortified American camp. While those around her assume she is insane due to the trauma of the war, she is actually a revolutionary spy feigning madness to exact revenge on the American soldiers who massacred her family.
No, it is not. While the film’s title is a deliberate allusion to Rizal’s iconic “madwoman,” the director, Jun Robles Lana, clarifies that the characters are distinct. The film is set during the 1902 American occupation, whereas Rizal’s story takes place during the Spanish colonial period.
Hilda Koronel, a celebrated veteran actress, had been on an extended hiatus from acting since her last film, The Mistress (2012). Her return to the big screen in Sisa is significant as it marks her first major role after more than a decade away from the industry, in a project specifically crafted for her by director Jun Robles Lana.
The film features a powerful ensemble of Filipina actresses, including Eugene Domingo, Jennica Garcia, Tanya Gomez, Angellie Sanoy, Barbara Miguel, Jorrybell Agoto, and Janina Mendoza.
Director Jun Robles Lana was inspired by the historical realities of the American occupation of the Philippines, specifically the Balangiga massacre of 1902 and the historical role of Filipino women who served as unsung heroes during the Philippine-American War.
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