FTFF 2026: Warla

A fierce trans crime drama and a tender queer love story collide in this bold, genre-bending double feature.

Fairy Tales Film Festival celebrates queer storytelling that refuses to play it safe. This striking double bill moves from the raw intensity of survival and chosen family to a heartfelt, offbeat romance—revealing the many ways queer lives endure, resist, and find joy.

Warla (Feature Film)

Contemporary Calgary | Heather Edwards Theatre

Runtime: 1h 00m Country: Philippines Languages: English, Japanese, Tagalog

ABOUT:
Young Kitkat is taken in by Joice, who leads a group of transgender women kidnapping foreigners to fund gender-affirming surgeries that they believe will finally allow them to live as their true selves. Kitkat, however, does not feel the need to change her body to be a real woman. The others in the gang, like Luningning and Barbie Ann, carry the heavy scars of rejection, deep gender dysphoria, and painful memories of cruelty they have endured, making the surgeries feel like a lifeline. For Kitkat, who has never known acceptance from a family, finding belonging with these women is both healing and complicated, as she must confront the harsh and destructive choices the group makes. Loosely based on a true story, this social-realist drama explores how women who long to stop being preyed upon transform into perpetrators, carving out power in the only space they feel is left to them.

A note for viewers: This film includes scenes of violence and explores themes of family rejection, discrimination, and the lived experiences of transgender women. Please engage at your own pace. If you need support during the festival: staff are available to connect and can also direct you to a quiet space or offer additional resources if needed.

Genres: Crime, Drama

Director

Kevin Alambra

Kevin Alambra is a filmmaker and television director at ABS-CBN Studios, the leading content provider in the Philippines, where he has been telling various genres of real-life content since 2014. Warla, his feature directorial debut, is a social-realist drama about the Philippines’ first all-trans criminal gang. It was an official entry to the 2025 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival and had its international premiere at the 2026 BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival by the British Film Institute.. He was a head researcher and director for "Maalaala Mo Kaya" or "Memories," the longest-running drama anthology in Asia, until its closing in 2022. He researched, co-wrote, and co-directed "The Last Manilaners," an internationally acclaimed docuseries about Jewish Holocaust survivors in the Philippines, and directed the second season of “Zoomers," an OTT youth-oriented series which was recognized by the ContentAsia Awards 2024.

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