Production
Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan was produced under Cine Metu and had Dustin Celestino as its director, who also guided the production of 2023 Cinemalaya Special Jury prize winner Ang Duyan ng Magiting. Nathan Studios also provided funding during the post-production phase. Kara Moreno was the cinematographer; Benjamin Padero and Carlo Tabije the production designers. Nicole Rosacay did the sound design while Paulo Protacio did the score. Paulo Protacio, John Rogers edited the film. [3]
Conceptualization and themes
Hydra was inspired from the result of the 2022 Philippine elections. Celestino describe that the film is a "love letter to the Kakampinks" and intends to provide a sense of "hope" to supporters of losing candidate Leni Robredo who ran for president. [4] He wrote the draft for Hydra interviewing people on Robredo's campaign a year after the vote. [3] He also admits the film which heavily makes references to Greek mythology is for a niche market. [4]
Hydra was based on Celestino's own insights following the aftermath of the elections. The film is described as an "existential drama" by the director. In relation to the film's creation, he insist that the hydra is a metaphor to disinformation, corruption, and one's relationship to history. [3]
Narrative device
Celestino intended an "impressionistic" approach on making Hydra describing the narrative structure as like a "rainbow" where a story covers the perspective of a first character in chapter one and finishes it in chapter eight, a second character starts theirs in chapter two and ends in seven, and so on. He names this device as the "Symphonic Arc structure" which he says is similar to the novel Cloud Atlas . Celestino admits that using this approach and its an experiment and may not be followed by the audience. [4]
Filming
The principal photography for Hydra took six days with post production work done from mid-April until early September 2025. [3]
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