Educational Media Reviews Online

Marie de la Cruz’ story is not dissimilar to those of myriads of other migrant domestic workers economically compelled to leave their homes for work overseas in the hopes of better providing for their loved ones left behind. From Baguio City, Philippines, she travels to the upscale Singapore home of a rich, if truly ugly American, his Filipina trophy wife and their young son, where, in exchange for grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, babysitting, carwashing, she spends the next eight months of her contract basically repaying her employment agency fees.

Meanwhile her unemployed husband back home uses any excuse he can to wheedle more money out of her. Realizing she must do something more to get herself out of the financial black hole she’s in, Marie moonlights as a b-girl and starts taking business classes with the plan of someday opening her own beauty salon back home. Hers is a grindingly hard life, requiring constant sacrifice and adaptation, yet she is nothing if not persevering, and there are some happy moments along the way to go with the poignant ones. She makes some good friends among her fellow émigré domestic workers, and even finds a love interest in a cute, hardworking Indian boy with business dreams of his own.

Although able to accumulate a modest nest egg after finally paying off her agency fees, Marie is forced to leave her hard-earned lucrative Singapore life when her daughter gets pregnant. Sacrificing herself once again, she returns home, hoping to open her salon while looking after her family. Her dreams are betrayed when her womanizing drunk of a husband steals her savings, however, and she resorts to taking in people’s laundry to make ends meet. Yet, passing by the same employment agency she started out with, she rejects the siren call of “no placement fees” for domestic workers in Singapore in favor, once again, of her family. The guiding light of her life, they are the one constant by which she lives, and her story, if at times bitter, is ultimately inspiring.

One might be astonished to learn that the cast included no professional actors, as their portrayal of the story is so realistic, detailed and moving. The directors deftly understated the harsh realities of migrant workers, and the result is a quiet masterpiece.

Remittance understandably won a lot of awards, including the Brooklyn Film Festival’s best screenplay and best actor for Angela Barotia’s portrayal of Marie, best feature film at the Flyway Film Festival, the audience award at the Greenbay Film Festival, the Richmond International Film Festival’s best of fest and best directing awards, and the Oceanside International Film Festival’s best narrative feature award.