Cinemalaya 2017: Birdshot (Opening Film; part of Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino)

August is a really busy time for local films. Not only is it Cinemalaya time, immediately following it is another film festival, the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP) which will be showing at all theaters nationwide. This year's opening film is one of the entries of the PPP, and it's Mikhail Red's Birdshot.

Birdshot opens with two storylines: in the first, a young girl kills a Philippine Eagle in a restricted area, and I don't have to tell you that's not good at all. In the second storyline, two police officers investigate the bizarre disappearance of a bus full of people. In both stories, the main characters are fresh and naive, idealistic to a fault.

This is very much a film that sees its characters come of age into darkness - the darkness of the realization that the truth of the world is far more complicated, existing in shades of gray. And the protagonists of Birdshot aren't bad people - they're good at heart but are forced into situations that are beyond their control. 

And Birdshot is a movie of secrets, where truth becomes the catalyst of this coming of age. The film is full of scenes pregnant with tension as we, the audience, are kept in the dark as much as the main characters are. Despite the film being a relatively slow burn, the tension keeps it engaging and watchable. When their innocence shatters into pieces, you know they have been irrevocably changed by this truth. Mikhail Red (through cinematographer Mycko David) uses visuals and spiritual symbolism to emphasize this point, for example, juxtaposing this coming of age with menarche, followed by a 'baptism' of sorts that serves as spiritual and physical ablution. 

Birdshot's themes are even more relevant today in a culture that celebrates and embraces impunity, one where corruption rots the institutions created to protect us, leading them to serve interests that are not our own. Its truths exist in many different layers, making the film worth watching multiple times. If this is any indication of the rest of the films of the PPP, I'm very excited.