There’s a curious, dynamic spin in the premise Overseas, which portrays Filipino women retraining themselves before they do domestic work abroad. That’s the thing – there are things they need to relearn for, presumably, their second time away. Their trainee, also a woman, asks them where they went during their previous times. These places happen to be wealthier countries either in East Asia or the Middle East. Getting this information, these women compare and contrast which regions pay for which expenses. But even the mere mention of those places send triggers. Those triggers become clearer as they discuss and reenact the different kinds of physical abuse they occasionally receive in their work.

Overseas shows both the formal and informal ways that these women educate each other. One of them recounts getting up at 5AM to do their work. This doesn’t really seem different from some of us who have to get up at the same time to make our morning commutes. But they clean up after other people’s children. And they have the work in front of them during their first waking moments. That’s something that this film is mindful of. Some 59,000 Filipino women do this work. But seeing them in smaller groups brings that message more clearly that these are personal stories of people who some of us only see as mere workers.

Some scenes depict these women talking in Cebuano about their bosses, some of whom are women who compare them to other, more submissive workers. Others show them doing the bare bones of their work. Overseas also picks up certain details about these spaces replicating the ones they’ll be working in abroad. A camera watches over two re-trainees as they unroll a curtain of dust something. That camera, which the film captures through long shot static takes, watches over them. But it can also prove that they do work in case their bosses accuse them of being lazy. Even the quiet moments here reminds us of the opportunities where these workers can resist.

Some of the dialogue can be illuminating, pointing to a broken economic model that these women can’t fix. But there are other moments that touch or current issues so hard that it feels forced, even though I agree with their positions. These women discuss both Duterte and their depiction in the local media as heroes. They think of themselves less as heroes and more like cannon fodder or cash cows. I would have also liked to have seen interactions between the second timers and women who are applying for overseas work for the first time. Nonetheless, this film is still as enlightening in showing the nuances of an unjust world.

Next Wednesday and Thursday, Hot Doc Ted Rogers Cinema is screening the Toronto premiere of Overseas. Click the link for more information.