As the Hydra Devours History
Four Filipinos confront the erasure of truth in a nation drowning in disinformation. This is what Dustin Celestino's As the Hydra Devours History does — and it doesn't look away once in 121 minutes.
What the film is actually about
The 2022 Philippine presidential election didn't just produce a winner. It produced a wound. Celestino's film, which premiered at the Cinemalaya festival in October 2025 and hit Philippine theaters on June 3, 2026, follows four Filipinos processing that loss through the lens of something darker than mere political defeat — the machinery of disinformation itself.
The hydra of the title isn't metaphor-lite. It's the film's whole architecture. In mythology, you cut off one head, two grow back. In modern information warfare, you debunk one lie, three more swarm in to replace it. That's what Celestino is watching here. Memory doesn't just fade. It gets actively, systematically consumed.
The cast anchoring this—Dolly de Leon, Jojit Lorenzo, Zanjoe Marudo, and Mylene Dizon—each carries a piece of the same fractured story. De Leon's international profile (she broke through in Triangle of Sadness) sits alongside Dizon's quiet intensity, and Celestino uses both to ask: what does political loss feel like when the loss itself is being erased from the historical record?
It's bleak. It's also necessary.
The performances that make it work
What strikes me about the Cinemalaya awards is how decisively they landed. Jojit Lorenzo took Best Actor. Mylene Dizon won Best Actress. Nanding Josef claimed Best Supporting Actor — three acting prizes from a single film, which doesn't happen by accident. That's the kind of recognition that signals something genuinely uncommon is happening on screen.
Dizon doesn't perform grief so much as inhabit it. There are silences in her scenes where you feel the weight of what she's not saying. Lorenzo brings a rawness to his role that the film's political subject matter demands — and honestly, when a film is this rooted in real electoral trauma, the performances either ground it or bury it. His doesn't bury anything.
PalabasTayo gave it a perfect 5 out of 5, calling the film "thought-provoking, necessarily uncomfortable, and unapologetic." The Movie Buff's B-grade assessment is worth sitting with too — they flagged tonal messiness, and they're not wrong. There's a sequence in the film's third chapter where the four characters' storylines converge in a shared space, and the shift is abrupt enough to jolt you. Whether that's a flaw or a deliberate provocation depends on what you think a political drama owes its audience.
Why this film matters right now (and where to find it)
As the Hydra Devours History does something most political dramas won't: it refuses catharsis. Most films of this type — especially ones tackling electoral defeat — give you something to grip. A moment of hope. A gesture toward resolution. A sense that something was learned or accomplished.
This film doesn't. It ends where the grief does, which is another way of saying it doesn't end at all.
The film's now streaming on major OTT platforms. Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker has the current breakdown across services — availability shifts constantly, so the widget there is more reliable than checking manually. For Filipino diaspora audiences especially, the move from theatrical (June 2026 in Manila) to streaming has mattered enormously. A film this politically specific hits differently depending on where you were when those 2022 election results came in.
Who should actually watch this
Skip this if you need your cinema to comfort you. If you can sit with a story that implicates its audience as much as its characters — if you followed the 2022 Philippine election, or if you've watched disinformation swallow a political moment you cared about — then As the Hydra Devours History will find something in you. The performances are extraordinary. The structure is genuinely inventive. And the refusal to offer easy resolution is the whole point.
The runtime's 121 minutes, but it doesn't feel monolithic. Celestino structures it in chapters — a "symphonic arc" that moves through distinct movements rather than a single relentless build. You can breathe. You just won't feel better.
Start here if you haven't seen it. Sit with the discomfort afterward.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Where can I watch As the Hydra Devours History? It's currently streaming on major OTT platforms. Check Movie OTT for the full, up-to-date list of where it's available in your region — streaming availability changes regularly.
Q: Who directed this?
Dustin Celestino wrote and directed. The film was produced by Cine Mutu/Sine Metu with support from Nathan Studios and the Cinemalaya Foundation.
Q: What awards did it win?
Three acting prizes at the 21st Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival (October 2025): Best Actor (Jojit Lorenzo), Best Actress (Mylene Dizon), and Best Supporting Actor (Nanding Josef).
Q: How long is it?
121 minutes. Structured in chapters, so the length doesn't feel like a single sustained assault.
Q: Is it based on a true story?
Not directly. But it's rooted in real events — the 2022 Philippine presidential election and the documented disinformation campaigns surrounding it. The characters are fictional. The context they inhabit is drawn from what actually happened.