Off World

Though fictional, Off World plays like a documentary, following a young Toronto man named Lucky, whose life is utterly transformed during a journey to his birthplace of Smokey Mountain. Once known as the Kingdom of Tondo, Smokey Mountain is now one of the most densely populated urban landscapes in the Philippines; a vast slum surrounding a mountain of garbage 12 storey's high, named for the methane gases that leak continuously from refuse accumulated over the course of more than half a century.

Here, where entire families eke out a meager living as scavengers, Lucky grapples with the echoes of his past in an attempt to define himself and reconcile his comparatively affluent Canadian upbringing with the hard-bitten existence of the children of Smokey Mountain. Guided by Julia, a worker at a local NGO, Lucky discovers a living brother who has managed to escape the life of a scavenger, but still lives in the slums surrounding the dump. Without revealing their relationship, and in an effort to fill the gap between them, Lucky immerses himself in the culture of Smokey Mountain and his brother's life, uncovering still more tangible links to his past.