By:
Fred Hawson
Fred Said: MOVIES
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Source:
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It did not seem
possible at first, but barely had we reeled from her mystical and metaphorical
film "Tuos," Ms. Nora Aunor is back with a film even MORE mystical
and metaphorical.
Sita Dimaiwat is a
very religious Catholic woman who lived in Naga with her one son named Lukas.
As a young boy, Lukas was very close to their parish priest, memorizing all his
catechism and prayers. As a young man though, he chose to take up Law in Manila
instead, memorizing his jurisprudence textbooks. One day, he joined a political
rally and was killed. Sita went to recover her son's remains and rode a train
to bring him back to their hometown.
Such, simply put,
was the bare bones of the story. However, what we saw on that big screen was a
complex masterpiece of abstract film art draped on this framework. Nothing was
simple about this film, everything seemed on an otherworldly plane, only
occasionally resting on solid ground for us to get our bearings straight. The
whole film felt like a vivid dream floating in the subconscious of a mother
struggling to deal with the death of her only beloved son. The imagery may be
whimsical (like the multitude of fireflies, the falling stars, the solitary
islet), or disturbing (like the rape of banana trunks, the unspooled cassette
tapes, the three dead Christs floating down the river) -- either way they are
open to any form of interpretation by the viewer.
Spoken in Ms.
Aunor's native Bikol language, the whole script by director Kristian Sendon
Cordero was written like poetry, if I were to gauge the words as translated in
the subtitles. It sounded like poetry the way the lines were delivered, very
deliberate and measured. Nothing it seems sounded like regular daily
conversation, even those shared over a meal or a drink -- between mother and
son, between two lovers, between mentor and student. There was never a shallow
line, as everything seemed to have a deeper meaning. It waxed philosophically
about various topics ranging from legends, religion, astronomy, discipline,
mathematics and death.
Ms. Nora Aunor of
course felt so right in her present element -- the independent film milieu --
where she can delve into the grittiest, most esoteric and most ethereal subject
matters unexplored by mainstream cinema. The three actors (portraying Lukas as
a precocious boy, as a curious teenager and as a studious law student) on whom
she shared her maternal wisdom all did well. In particular, Jess Mendoza, who
played Lukas as a young adult, held his own against the Master herself. He was
charming and sincere in his performance, you will certainly feel why his mother
is suffering so much after he left her.
I do not claim to
fully understand everything in this beautifully-shot yet thematically profound
film. It was extraordinary in the enigmatic delivery of its message. The
storytelling style of Cordero was not linear by any means. I sense he may be
going for Terrence Malick's style, ala "The Tree of Life". The film
flashed back and forward and sideways, at times unmindful of conventional
logic, as it melded reality with fantasy, memory and imagination. The final
product was entrancing in its overreaching intentions, although admittedly
there were times when its sheer depth and emotional heft could get too heavy
for the audience to bear. 8/10.
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