Sa Kanto ng Ulap at Lupa (2011, Mes de Guzman)

A rare trip to my hometown Bayombong, capital of Nueva Vizcaya, made me appreciate the realism of Mes de Guzman's award-winning film Of Skies and Earth. I saw firsthand the majestic beauty of cloud-capped mountain ranges. It seems heavenly to anyone gazing from afar. But, as one gets up close one sees that not all is tranquil up there. Roads ravaged by storms and torrential rains will add hours and sometimes days to your travel time. Heck, a newspaper even labeled Nueva Vizcaya as the ‘bad roads capital of the Philippines.’


Life in the highlands becomes grey and muddy with the onset of the rainy season. Groups of indigenous people complain about the effect of bad roads on the sales of their farm products and the provision of much-needed services. Not much work is required during this wet period. 


Sa Kanto ng Ulap at Lupa is set during such bleak economic period. A pair of kids, Rodolfo aka Yoyong and younger brother Poklat, descend to Bayombong and adjoining municipalities to earn some money. They take shelter in an abandoned house along with two boys, Uding and Boying. The four kids do various odd jobs.


The best scenes show the kids at play or just plainly conversing with one another. They remind me of my childhood experiences and the stories told by our elders. One such story I’ve heard during my recent trip was about how my aunts and their playmates would nonchalantly shoo away floating feces during their swimming escapades. Ilocanos also has this habit of scaring each through ghost stories. The slaughterhouse manager is scared shitless because of the kids’ story about vengeful porcine spirits.


A most memorable scene from the film shows Yoyong and Uding ambushing a young lad. Instead of a fist fight, we see Yoyong meekly apologizing to his fellow teenager Adoy. The four kids may have some mean streak in them but they do have good hearts. All they need is some guidance and probably more education.



As seen in the film, services 
in the province are well provided in the lowlands but not so in the highlands. A team of police arrives immediately at a crime scene. A truckload of firemen responds promptly to a fire alarm. The manager of the slaughterhouse worries about the possibility of a random inspection by the town mayor. The residents of the highlands are the ones getting the short end of the stick.


Director Mes de Guzman gained prominence with his pro-education film debut Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong. He once again highlights the importance of education. Yoyong is barely literate. Lack of accessible education must have been the likely culprit. A few reading lessons turned the young man into a loving person. A few more years of formal education would have transformed Yoyong into a better, caring person.

The final scene shows how the bleak, grey lives of the kids turn into a colorful albeit short-lived existence. Heaven for them is a bountiful harvest. But, who will survive to attain that divine promise?

Ka Oryang (2011, Sari Raissa Lluch Dalena)

Among the 10 films from the Cinema One Originals Festival 2011, Sari Lluch Dalena’s film Ka Oryang was the only one to get a perfect 10 on my scorecard. It was my bet for the Audience Choice award, which eventually went to Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay. For those wondering about that mysterious citation, the award was chosen by a group of viewers privileged to see all 10 entries way before the gala premieres at Shangri-La Cineplex. (Salamat nga po pala sa Cinema One team para sa mga libreng screenings at pagkain).

The Martial Law film may not have been popular enough to win that certain award but it was spectacular enough to nab the Best Picture award handed out by the festival jury. Right off the bat, Ka Oryang grabs the viewer’s attention with its lean, jugular black-and-white depiction of the Diliman Commune at the University of the Philippines (UP). The crisp powerful images (including that of a female Oblation) and chilling soundscape (e.g. piercing banshee wails of the students) send shivers to my bones. I’m moved and teary-eyed as I recall the heroism of students and the sacrifices of young martyrs during the seventies. Those were the years of rage against the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos.

An apathetic student named Gregoria de la Cruz (Alessandra de Rossi) witnesses the brutal suppression of legitimate dissent during the First Quarter Storm. A bloodied acquaintance of hers lies dying in front of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Fast forward to the mid-1970s, Gregoria, now a dedicated rural doctor, tends to a bloodied comrade of Ka Noli (Joem Bascon). She asks questions about Ka Noli’s work with the underground movement. Even though she has seen first-hand the abuses by the minions of Marcos, she remains apolitical and just serves the people in her own unique way. She is not unlike real-life rural doctor Bobby de la Paz who treated sick people no matter what their political affiliations are. De la Paz was eventually gunned down at his clinic in Samar because of rumors suspecting him to be a communist or with links to the New People’s Army (NPA). Aside from de la Paz, young martyr Ma. Lorena Barros is another peg for the character of Gregoria. Barros was a UP student who joined the armed guerrilla revolution. She was a beautiful amazon who rose to the ranks of the rebels.

Gregoria’s main reason for joining the rebels is not clearly delineated. (This is not a weakness of the film for it is similar to the case of slain student leader Edjop, who mysteriously shunned his privileged background to take up arms.) It must have been love or it must have been belated awakening to the sufferings of the Filipino people. Or it could be a whole lot of other reasons.

Most likely, one of the reasons is a person who makes an appearance in the film. A surprising documentary footage shows President Ferdinand Marcos and family hobnobbing with and charming the socks off of Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Marcos has often been cited as the number one recruiter for communists in the Philippines. Widespread human rights abuses during the Marcos period pushed people to join the revolutionary movement. The black-and-white footage is somewhat apt then. Communist leader Zedong meets the number one recruiter of Reds in the Philippines.

Gregoria is just one of the countless emboldened Filipino women, inspired by Katipuneras such as Ka Oriang de Jesus, who fought for their rights and the rights of their countrymen. She meets other women warriors in prison after her arrest.

Director/scriptwriter Dalena presents harrowing experiences of these female political prisoners. A nude female recruiter for the NPA is tortured atop a block of ice. A pregnant detainee ends up being a punch bag. A mother is shot point-blank in front of her kid. Most of these tales are said to be based on real-life experiences of Martial Law victims.

Ka Oryang is a tribute to those young people who gave up their lives fighting the dark forces of Marcos. It is an important film for it serves as a reminder to a dark, grim period in the history of the Philippines. There have been high-profile attempts to portray the Marcos era as mostly a positive period for the country. Well, this film debunks that revisionist image. Ka Oriang de Jesus had some words for people who twist history for vested interests. The lakambini of the Katipunan said ‘fear history, for it respects no secrets.’

Anatomiya ng Korupsiyon (2011, Dennis Marasigan)

Anatomiya ng Korupsiyon is notable for its incorruptible character, Attorney Cely Martinez. The film starts with a Bing Lao-styled establishing shot of the main character’s house and inner disposition. We see lots of diplomas plastered on a wall of this derelict house. The beauteous young lady prepares breakfast on what is her first day of work. Her mother is disappointed to learn that she will work for the government. The elder mutters that she’ll end up just like her father, who was not rich enough to make his family live the sweet life. The smiling young girl says nothing and eats heartily her simple breakfast of pandesal. However, the smile, somewhat awkward and mocking, seems not to be what the director ordered. Maricar Reyes as Cely Martinez started on the wrong foot but showed brilliance in most latter scenes.

Reyes gets into the groove of things as she portrays a dedicated, maverick hearing officer. Martinez’s diligence and promptness in dealing with her cases cause annoyance amongst her colleagues and co-workers. Fellow lawyers prefer a delay in their cases because more hearing appearances translate into more fees. Stenographers and regular clerks also benefit from prolonged cases. Her colleagues subtly, and later on directly, show her illicit ways of earning quick bucks.

Attorney Martinez remains steadfast in shunning grease money. Even when hospital and medical care bills start to pile up, she manages to elude the menacing tentacles of a corrupt government office. She even makes a hasty exit from a Christmas party because she cannot fathom to mingle with corrupt people. As she ambles out, we notice her sweet smile, a smile that could only emanate from a pure heart. It is a smile that seems to say “Dad, I’ve kept your name clean.” The movie should have ended with that smile but it goes on for a few more minutes.

A fine blend of Dennis Marasigan’s reliable deft direction and Bing Lao’s creative inputs, Anatomiya ng Korupsiyon is an almost solid Cinema One Originals entry. I adored it so much right up to Cely Martinez’s victory walk. But when she steps into the elevator and darkness engulfs her, the film goes down a few notches for me.

The movie has made a strong case against corruption so I was bewildered with the elevator scene and subsequently, the Jun Lozada footage. Cely Martinez is no ordinary office employee that cannot afford to lose her job. She can easily get another job. Her father’s legacy seems to be her bedrock of courage. She is not supposed to be helpless against the dark forces.

Meanwhile, the Jun Lozada footage shows the whistleblower at a 2008 Senate hearing narrating how his boss Romulo Neri instructed him to ‘moderate their greed.’ As it is, the footage is not clear enough on what message it wants to impart. Yes, it does suggest that not much has changed since the Marcos years. But is it a call to accept moderate corruption or is it a call for more courageous whistleblowers to come forward to eradicate wrongdoing in government? If it is the latter, then help and hope is indeed on the way for those people doing the right thing in public offices.

The last two or three minutes of this film will likely elicit conflicting extreme reactions from moviegoers. I didn’t like the elevator scene and the Jun Lozada footage but the scenes that came before them and the character Cely Martinez are good enough to make me rate the film highly among the Cinema One Originals entries.

Six Degrees of Separation From Lilia Cuntapay (2011, Antoinette Jadaone)

Four women directors upstaged their male counterparts at the Cinema One Originals Festival 2011. Sari Lluch Dalena won the best director award for her brilliant Martial Law film Ka Oryang. Ivy Baldoza’s sensuous and sultry film Mga Anino sa Tanghaling Tapat nabbed the jury prize. Shireen Seno’s ambitious film Big Boy got rave reviews from prominent film bloggers. However, those three films have their fair share of detractors.

The hilarious mockumentary Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay (SDOSFLC) is the runaway popular and critical hit of the fest. The fourth female filmmaker, Antoinette Jadaone, deservedly won the best screenplay award. With ample support from Raymond Lee and Joyce Bernal, the charming filmmaker/scriptwriter crafted an engaging, incisive, and rollicking look at the travails of a bit-player in a cult horror movie series.

Ghoulish looking Lilia Cuntapay (played by Lilia Cuntapay) has been in the movie industry for thirty years. She endured countless hours waiting for her turn during shoots. She has disrobed for the camera in the film Babae sa Breakwater. All those dedication and commitment have finally paid off as the septuagenarian bit player nabs an acting nomination from AFTAP. The film shows how Cuntapay responds to this bit of great news. She prepares a speech in case she wins the best supporting actress award.

The big night arrives and the camera captures a nervous Cuntapay resplendent in a silver dress. Angel Aquino then reads out the winner of the best actress award… Lilia Cuntapay!

Wait a minute… Silver dress? Angel Aquino? Best actress? In a scene that could have been made specifically for this movie, Cuntapay really did win an acting award, albeit shared with Maricar Reyes. She took a deep breath and acknowledged that she didn’t expect to win the Best Actress award at the Cinema One Originals Festival 2011. Proof of that is she didn’t prepare a speech. As a result, she had a mental block and failed to thank directors Peque Gallaga, Lore Reyes, and Jadaone. The combination of spotlights, cameras, and the presence of Nora Aunor might have unnerved her during her speech, which is not unlike those fictitious speeches in the movie. Initially, I thought the movie’s speech segments were weak as they show Cuntapay’s limited acting ability. But, having seen the acceptance speech of Cuntapay, I realized that she is not acting in those speech segments. That is the true Cuntapay we are seeing. If she seems uneasy and uncomfortable it is because she just doesn’t buy the idea that she’ll be nominated for an acting award much less wins an award. Savor the speech segments for a glimpse of the true Lilia Cuntapay.

Jadaone’s film is a stunning meta-movie mind-fuck. It blurs the line between fiction and reality. All throughout the movie, one is left wondering what the truth is. Is Myra a real relative of Cuntapay? The actress who portrayed Myra won the best supporting actress award and acknowledged Cuntapay as her aunt in her speech, which shows her good sense of humor. Again, she is what she seems to play in the movie. I loved the part in which she helps Cuntapay practice her lines. Their rapport seems to suggest some blood affinity. Is that the place Cuntapay really lives in? Only the cast and crew know. How I wish I could attend a post-screening forum someday so I could unravel amazing details about the film.

I liked this film better than the Cinemalaya blockbuster film Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank (ABSST) for one major reason. ABSST seems to spring out of envy. That film comes across as being made to spite successful filmmakers such as Pepe Diokno and Jim Libiran. On the other hand, SDOSFLC was made out of deep love for an underdog, a film underdog at that. I love stories of ordinary people making it big. And with this film, a bit player morphs into an award-winning actress. A few more sold-out screenings and the name Lilia Cuntapay will be on most moviegoers’ lips.