When Strangers Re-Unite follows the lives of three Filipino families as they relate the difficulties and triumphs in mending their lives together after years of separation. The three stories together give a whole picture of the conditions of one sector in Canadian and Philippine society.
The Beltrans
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An accountant in the Philippines, Fe Beltran was separated from her husband and four kids for five years to work in Canada as a live-in caregiver. She worked 12-hour days, six days a week. The film begins with the Beltrans' reunion in a Canadian international airport and follows a year in their new life together.
On the surface they seem happy. But the children begin to express feelings of homesickness and of missing their relatives in the Philippines. One night, Fe receives a long-distance call from a woman her husband was having an affair with in the Philippines. The rifts among the family members become apparent, and Fe and her family struggle to mend them.
Esterina and Maricel
After 17 years apart, Esterina and Maricel have spent their few months of reunification by trying to reacquaint themselves with each other. But the hours Esterina spends working as a domestic worker have become an obstacle to their attempts.
Maricel is left mostly on her own as she adjusts to a new culture. Bored and frustrated, she longs to be back in the Philippines with her friends and grandparents who have raised her for 17 years.
Their involvement in a Filipino women's organization, Pinay, made them discover that they share a common condition with other Filipino women in Canada. By participating in a popular theatre production, they gain a broader perspective about their problems by learning the history of the Filipino people and the root causes of their situation. They begin to build a bond as, together, they organize and advocate for the rights and welfare of Filipino women in Canada.
The Carreons
This segment of the film focuses on Roderick Carreon, the eldest son of the Carreon family. Of the three families, the Carreons have been together in Canada the longest (about 12 years).
But, as Roderick recounts in the film, the early adjustment period was extremely difficult. After six years of separation, Roderick felt distant from his parents when they were reunited. An added difficulty was his adjustment to a new culture and society. Feeling the culture shock and what he believed to be a lack of support from his family, he was driven to drugs and gang violence.
The film shows his struggles as he overcame these, his eventual rise as a union leader in a factory he worked in and the closing of the gap between his parents and himself as he raises a family of his own.
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