Batch '81

Alpha Kappa Omega Batch '81 (also known as Batch '81 or ΑΚΩ 81) is a 1982 Filipino psychological drama film directed by Mike de Leon, with a screenplay by de Leon, Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr., and Raquel Villavicencio. The film depicts the titular fraternity's harsh initiation of new batch members as seen through the eyes of pre-med student Sid Lucero, played by Mark Gil in what is generally recognized as his breakout role. The film premiered at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival during the Directors' Fortnight, screened alongside de Leon's 1981 film Kisapmata. The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Filipino Film Critics) included it on their list of the Ten Best Films of the Decade. In 2017, the film was digitally restored with the support of the Asian Film Archive, with a theatrical premiere at the 74th Venice International Film Festival as part of the Venice Classics section. Plot Sid Lucero (Mark Gil), a university student, is pushed by his mother to take up zoology so that he may later go on to medical school. He is attracted to the prospect of joining Alpha Kappa Omega, also called AKO, one of the most prominent of the school's Greek-letter organizations. Sid is one of the fraternity's fifteen initial applicants, but only eight make it into AKO's six-month initiation program, which is overseen by the fraternity seniors, called "masters" by the neophytes. The fraternity leader, Vince (Jimmy Javier), orients the pledge batch in the ways of the group before submitting them to their first hazing.