Two prominent film critics and champions of Southeast Asian cinema have been shot dead at their home in the Philippines.
29 year-old Nika Bohinc was a highly-regarded freelance film critic in her native Slovenia and former editor-in-chief of Ekran magazine. She had recently moved to Manila to live with 28 year-old Alexis Tioseco, an academic and expert on new Filipino cinema, who founded and edited the online journal Criticine. In his writings for Criticine, Tioseco was an outspoken critic of Filipino funding models and lobbied for improved support structures for filmmakers, and increased accessibility to the Philippines' rich screen heritage.
Bohinc and Tioseco were members of the FIPRESCI International Federation of Film Critics and fellow members were informed of their deaths in a circular this morning.
According to reports, the couple's neighbours in the Quezon district of Manila heard four gunshots and called the police late in the night on September 1st. Police allegedly suspect that a new domestic employee of the couple is linked to the crime.
Another employee, Magdalena Patpat, told police that one of three gunmen shot the couple as they entered the home at approximately 10pm. Patpat was then hog-tied as the gunmen ransacked the couple's home for valuables, including jewellery and a laptop.
