Batang West Side

Investigating the murder of the young Hanzel (Yul Servo), shot dead one winter night on West Side Ave., police detective Juan Mijares (Joel Torres) plumbs the depths of the Filipino youth gangs of Jersey City who trade in shabu—crystal meth. Talking to the boy’s mother, who is remarried to an American, as well as his ex-soldier grandfather and American-born girlfriend, bigger questions emerge: What dark history has pushed so many Filipinos to migrate to this wintry land? Why are these the conditions of their children? What past does this detective emerge from? Shot at the freezing turn of the millennium by a young, fearless Lav Diaz (Norte, The End of History), Batang West Side is a timeless epic about Filipino immigration over generations.