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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

QCinema 2015: Kapatiran, Gayuma, Water Lemon, Iisa

I'd never think I'd begin a review by mentioning Rebecca Black, but here it is. Kapatiran begins with a cheesy video parody of Rebecca Black's Friday, telling us how law school is lots of studying, meeting friends, and fun fun fun. It's the kind of video you'd see as a project made by freshmen: endlessly naive and full of an idealized notion of college life. Of course, the next scene completely turns this on its head as it shows us a fraternity hazing in detail.

Kapatiran examines the concept of brotherhood much like Mike De Leon's Batch '81, but attacks the concept in a different way. The movie doesn't have a conventional narrative structure and instead shows us different scenes that deal with brotherhood in society. It isn't strictly only about frats, either - what happens in these fraternities is merely a symptom of a much bigger condition, a condition that permeates every level of our society.

Kapatiran prevents being boring by making these scenes an easily digestible 3-5 minutes each. While some scenes share similar characters, many are documentary style slices of life or interviews or vignettes. Some have almost nothing to do with the law school narrative apart from the shared theme, and some, like the cockfights or the lubed up little people wrestling somewhere, are baffling. There's also a scene where film directors play the parts of politicians or frat men, which, I wonder, is a sign that these concepts of brotherhood play into the independent and mainstream film industries as well. I may be over-reading it, but knowing Pepe Diokno's previous works, he always does things for a reason.

It's doesn't paint the concept of brotherhood as completely bad; shots of a school game depict brotherhood in the spirit of solidarity. There is also brotherhood through faith as shown in scenes with the recent INC rally. And, there is also the absurd - as anyone who has joined a soc in college knows, some of the initiations can be pretty loopy.

Kapatiran is densely packed with ideas, and even though I'm not a big fan of experimental cinema, I admire what it tried to do. At the very least it is a fascinating experiment of sound, image, and thought.

Gayuma is part love story, part horror. In this one, an art student, Mike (Benjamin Alves) becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman (Phoebe Walker), who slowly consumes his life literally and figuratively.

It's not really a scary kind of horror movie, aside from a creepy moment near the end. The focus is more on the all-consuming romance Alves' character finds himself in. In that regard, there are some interesting moments as we see Mike self destruct as he falls into a sweet but fatal trap. The sexual tension in some scenes are palpable, and that ends up being the highlight of the film.

Unfortunately, the film is a collection of missed opportunities. We could see more of Mike's art and how his love and lust changes his art, but we don't really see that. We could catch a glimpse of art students in a world that people far removed from art like myself seldom see, but we don't see much of that either. 

Benjamin Alves shines in this one, although his partner, newcomer Phoebe Walker, is more hit and miss. Her delivery during the big revelation at the end falls a little flat. The rest of the scene was okay, though.

While it has a few good moments, In the end, I can't make what Gayuma as a film wants to be.

Lem Lorca returns to Mauban after last year's Mauban: Ang Resiko with his latest film Water Lemon. While the former film meandered with its story, this one knows where its going, ultimately blowing its predecessor out of the water.

Water Lemon is the story of Filemon (Jun-Jun Quintana), a man who lives with his recently widowed mother Pina (Tessie Tomas) in the sleepy coastal town of Mauban. Filemon, or Lemon as some of the other kids in the town call him, has Asperger Syndrome. Thanks to this, he has trouble understanding a lot of social cues, and would rather spout statistics about water levels in straight English. His life in the small town and his interactions with family and fellow townsfolk forms the main plot of the film.

Movies about people on the autistic spectrum are uncommon, although not rare;  there are some that use them as side characters, while others use them as their central plot point - there's Barry Levinson's Rain Man (1988) that had an autistic savant as its main character, and there's the recent independent feature, Adam (2009) about a man living with Asperger Syndrome. This is the first local movie, as far as I can recall, that treats these people with the humanity they deserve.

Owing to my profession, I have encountered people who have autism or have an autism spectrum disorder, from family, acquaintances and sometimes patients. Jun-Jun Quintana's performance is laudable, as he pretty much nails a lot of the nuances in portraying such a character. Of course, Water Lemon's Mauban is populated by a myriad of other quirky characters, each one superbly acted, and each with their own issues of self worth. Tessie Tomas deserves an award for her performance as a mother who tries desperately to understand her child, but is prevented from doing so thanks to her son's nature. Other than that, the film is well made, with most of its emotional heft stemming from these characters. Despite taking place in the same town, this film and Mauban: ang Resiko portrays different sides of the small town, making it feel less like a retread of the same ideas.

Water Lemon's ambiguous ending can be taken literally, but I prefer a more metaphorical meaning to it: despite the best efforts from friends and family to understand Filemon, he is forever a cipher, and he will always have to walk the road of life alone.

And finally, Iisa begins with a stunning sequence of rebels drenched in the rain. A catastrophe has befallen a small town, all but wiping it off the map. As the townsfolk and rebels slowly rebuild, they depend on supplies and aid from the local government - a government that barely cares for them, if at all.

Ross (Angeli Bayani), a schoolteacher, is pulled from the rubble. It is evident that there is some bad blood between her and some of the townsfolk. Struggles from both inside and outside the town will plague her, as well as ghosts from her past.

The most aurally and visually stimulating film of the festival so far, Iisa is a film about people who are more or less invisible. Their lives are inconsequential to the powers that be; they are victims of corruption and red tape. A list of the dead, meticulously compiled over days, is nonchalantly forgotten and  buried along with other dead bodies.

Ross is at the center of this now invisible town populated by invisible people - she wants to get out of this troubled life, but she barely has the means or the will to do so. Much of her past is left ambiguous, which may be one of the film's shortcomings, as we get to know little about her relationship with her estranged husband, or her background or situation with her parents who apparently live abroad. All we get are small snippets of the past, and we are left to fill in the blanks. The same goes for the people in the town and their relationship with the military or the government; as a perspective on the town before the catastrophe could be better served by scenes rather than mere exposition.

But despite the film's faults, it works. The film weighs on you heavily as the townsfolk struggle to keep their dignity and faith in the face of overwhelming hardship. While you can sympathize and even try to empathize with their plight, their hands are not completely clean. They commit acts of rebellion and steal out of survival instinct. Then again, what would you have them do?

The climax of the film, a kind of sermon on the mount, is almost as good as the opening scene, although I would have wanted a bit more closure. The aforementioned opening scene is one of the best I've seen of any film, local or foreign, this year. Along with the best sound design of any local film I've seen this year, Iisa is a technical triumph that should not be missed.

***

I want to see the excellent foreign film lineup and some excellent non-competition local films as well but my schedule is not being good to me these days. I'll be seeing the remaining competition films by Thursday, so watch out for that.

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