The hardships of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is a sustained issue even in elite nations like Switzerland as depicted in Dominik Locher’s “Enjoy Your Stay.”
Mercedes Cabral plays Luz, a migrant worker who with other undocumented Filipinas cleans luxury chalets in the Swiss mountain village of Verbier, earning meager salaries while avoiding the attention of authorities at the risk of deportment.
Luz is one of the more senior Filipino workers for the cleaning company of Alexis Manenti’s Thibault, and any money she earns goes back home to her daughter currently under the care of ex-husband Tonio (Nico Antonio).
Issues arise when Tonio brings the family’s custody battle to live television where their child must choose which parent to live with when she turns seven in a matter of months, and the hapless Luz hasn’t been home in years trying to find jobs outside the Philippines.
Pressed for time, Luz tries to recruit more cleaners and find more ways to earn cash, pushing her moral boundaries to its limits.
OFW stories are familiar source materials for local movies, popular examples being “Anak,” “Milan,” “Dubai,” “Sunday Beauty Queen,” “Caregiver,” “Hello, Love, Goodbye” and its record-breaking sequel.
But screenwriter Honeylyn Joy Alipio put it best during the Philippine premiere of “Enjoy Your Stay” to open this year’s Cinemalaya Film Festival, that as long as Filipinos need to resort to working abroad, such stories continue needing to be told.
Switzerland is viewed by many to be a first-class country with an exceptionally high cost of living and yet major cities in the famously neutral nation are populated with Filipinos, some of them undocumented immigrants or TNTs (“tago nang tago”).
The film, which premiered at Berlinale 2026, isn’t coy about this culture. Luz and her companions have their passports stored away, live in close quarters, dodge any sightings by polices, and are even asked by Thibault to as much as possible “use the back door.”
Juxtaposed with that by cinematographer Jeanne Lapoire are shots of extravagant Verbier chalets, the stunning Swiss Alps, and Europeans mindlessly preparing for another downhill ski – all while Filipino workers tidy up the messes they leave behind.
“Enjoy Your Stay” does dangle the threat of being caught as plot thrills but Swiss authorities hardly pay attention to the helpers, almost as if aware that without them, literal and figurative expensive structures would fall apart.
All of this hinges on Mercedes’ exceptional performance as Luz, capable of expressing professionalism while doing the mundane as well as vulnerability when her personal life is at stake.
Early on it’s subtly hinted that Luz would err on the side of caution even it meant going against fellow Filipinas, because upending the status quo would through away everything all have worked for.
Mercedes pushes the boundaries of Luz’s moral foundations to the edge, often dragging the involvement of her companions, played by Anna Luna, Irma Adlawan, Donna Cariaga, Hasmine Kilip and Ruby Ruiz, in a cameo appearance.
For struggling migrant workers, money often comes first. Literal cash even makes the film’s first few clips set during Christmastime, a period considered by Filipinos to be sacred and ideally devoted to family.
But from thousands of miles away, the lengths OFWs would go to sustain their families can be agonizing to witness, even in places as beautiful as the Alps.
As residents and tourists enjoy their stays in high-class spaces, it’s the low-income workers from far-flung areas burdened to pick up the pieces.