Puregold CinePanalo short film ‘Limlim’ confronts a society that fails women and children 

CinePanalo entry ‘Limlim’ forces conversation on abuse, abortion, and society’s failure to protect.

Puregold CinePanalo short film “Limlim” confronts the silences society often refuses to acknowledge. Directed by Samantha Palaje, the story centers on a 12-year-old girl carrying an unwanted pregnancy after sexual abuse, navigating the painful intersections of motherhood, innocence, and survival, subjects still considered deeply taboo within Filipino culture.

For Palaje, the origins of “Limlim” came not from a single scene, but from a collective social reality. “Limlim was born from a culture that rejects discomfort and buries difficult truths,” she explains. “This film echoes the lived experiences and struggles of real people: the women and the children.” That desire to confront what is often hidden became the emotional foundation of the film.

Rather than telling the story through an adult perspective, Palaje chose to anchor the film through the eyes of a child. She describes “Limlim” as an exploration of “the fragile space where innocence can become a double-edged sword, and where the instincts of mother and child begin to mirror one another.” Through Lilia’s perspective, the film captures the confusion of grief and trauma before language fully exists to explain it. “It’s time we act and care more for the victim than for the perpetrator or societal expectations,” she says.

Palaje’s understanding of motherhood also comes from personal experience. Raised by what she describes as “wonderful women,” she says she witnessed how love can be “gentle yet intense, carrying the weight of sacrifice in pursuit of one’s own good.”

While “Limlim” directly engages with abortion, sexual abuse, and motherhood, Palaje says the film exists “to make people think,” hoping to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

The film will premiere at the Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival alongside 20 other student short films, highlighting emerging Filipino filmmakers and a new generation of bold storytelling in Philippine cinema.

 

 

Rather than telling the story through an adult perspective, director Samantha Palaje chose to anchor the film through the eyes of a child. She describes it as an exploration of ‘the fragile space where innocence can become a double-edged sword, and where the instincts of mother and child begin to mirror one another.’

 

 

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