The same props that framed a powerful prison story on screen, bunk beds, chairs, tables, kitchen essentials and cleaning supplies, have found new meaning behind real bars, now serving the daily lives of elderly persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Manila City Jail Male Dorm.
“From reel to real life,” read the caption on GMA Pictures’ Instagram post on July 20, 2025, showing the repurposed props now lining the dormitory floors of the jail. The post followed a special screening of “Green Bones” inside the facility, allowing inmates to watch a film that, in more ways than one, mirrored their own truths.
For lead actor Dennis Trillo, the transformation he underwent for the role wasn’t merely physical. Last December in Cebu, during a press conference at SM City Seaside on Dec. 22, 2024, Trillo spoke candidly about what it meant to step into the shoes of his character, Domingo Zamora, a man silenced not just by prison walls, but by guilt and a past that refuses to loosen its grip.
“It takes three hours a day just to become him,” Trillo said, referring to the daily ritual of tattoos and prosthetics in the makeup chair. “But it’s in that silence, those hours sitting still, where I learned to really listen to who he was.”
Directed by Zig Dulay and written by JC Rubio, “Green Bones” tells the story of a convicted man up for parole and the prison guard determined to keep him behind bars. Beneath the procedural drama lies a deeply human story about regret and the quiet resistance to hope.
Trillo, who learned sign language for the role, shared how every gesture had to carry meaning. “With little dialogue, every movement had to speak volumes,” he said, crediting their on-set instructor for ensuring that nothing was lost in translation.
The real-world donation of the film’s set pieces to senior inmates is the kind of full-circle moment that rarely happens in showbiz. “There’s a humanity in PDLs we often forget,” Trillo said in December. “They dream, they hurt, they hope, just like the rest of us.”
With “Green Bones” having swept major honors at both the 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) and the Entertainment Editors’ Choice Awards (EDDYS), including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director, the story continues to resonate.