There's a certain flavor of silence that pervades Daughters of the Three Tailed Banner, first part of Teng Mangansakan's moro2mrw film project. It's the kind of silence that penetrates the mundane, the everyday, and pretense masked as professionalism, but it is a silence that is pregnant with meaning. May it be deep seated regret over choices made in the past, uncertainty towards a future that remains hidden, or the sheer will to survive, it is a silence shared by all of the women in this movie.
And women comprise the majority of the players in this film, as it is their movie - that of the struggle of the Moro woman in uncertain times. Its setting, the eve of the proclamation of the new Bangsamoro government, reflects these women's own insecurities as they move forward, at times blindly, into an uncertain future.The film tells us of a society of women where the men have been taken from them, either through war, circumstance or their own choice. And in the middle, the all-important notion that the family line must continue, no matter what.
Despite their changing circumstances, the female protagonists of Daughters of the Three Tailed Banner are drawn back to the status quo, either out of a sense of familial duty, or an inability or reluctance to embrace change.
It's a tale told with remarkable and sometimes challenging subtlety. The plot is not spoon-fed to the audience; instead we learn it through knowing looks of silence, scraps of information and hidden meaning. In the end, thematically we witness a rebirth, an unshackling of sorts in both narrative threads. I hope the next film gets made.
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