Binibining Promised Land

In the Philippines, beauty contests are major cultural events as important as the Eurovision Song Contest or the World Cup in Europe. Around 2,3 million Filipino emigrants scattered around the world also organise them regularly in their new home countries. Working six days a week is not uncommon for Filipino migrant workers, who are employed mainly as caregivers, housekeepers or nurses. Celebrating special, festive events in their off days, such as the popular beauty contests, is a welcomed change.

Since the Turkish artist and filmmaker Köken Ergun (*1976) took the opportunity of filming one of these beauty contests in a night-club inside Tel Aviv’s central bus station in 2010, he has been following the life of Filipino migrant communities in other parts of the world, as a long-term project. In Binibining Promised Land (2011/2019)
he portrays a festive occasion that entails numerous rituals and competitions, carefully observing and approaching individual protagonists who have also been actively involved in the process of making the film. For instance, Ergun chose the colourful intertitles at the request of the protagonists. Five individual interviews– including anew one recorded in Essen–enable Filipino migrant workers from Israel and Germany to express themselves and describe both their working and everyday lives. Binibining Promised Land is presented in the private and cosy atmosphere of a small café in a residential building on Essen’s Baumstraße.