My family boasts a substantial number of nurses. Most work abroad, and some have even done so for decades at this point. As a medical professional myself, I view nurses as an invaluable and essential part of any healthcare team. In honor of the storied history of nurses in our country, Dr. Carl Balita (himself a nurse), with the help of the Philippine Nurses' Association, produced a feature film called Siglo ng Kalinga.
Directed by Lem Lorca (Water Lemon, among others) Siglo ng Kalinga focuses on the life and career of Anna (Joy M. Ras), a nurse with dreams of helping her family and the small coastal community she lives in. As the film goes on, however, Anna learns that things are not so simple, and in the process (rather inadvertently) the film exposes how our health care system is deeply dysfunctional.
The film is not perfect. It struggles to put things into focus, sometimes segueing into tangentially related sequences about the life and trials of Anastacia Giron-Tupas, Giron-Tupas is one of the country's most distinguished nurses and nurse leaders, but if you come into this blind, you may not be able to tell who she is, much less connect her story to the central narrative. In one sequence, the venerable nurse is met with opposition from her colleagues, but the scene lacks the context behind it, so it was challenging to figure out what was happening. To be fair, I would gladly watch a movie about her eventful life, but it seems out of place here. I personally would have preferred it if they'd stuck to one thing.
Anna's story is inspired by the real life stories of many other nurses: she spends time abroad after a career in the Philippines, she fights for her fellow nurses' rights, especially during the COVID pandemic, and she loses friends and colleagues due to the virus. There are a lot of interesting side stories (for example, the elderly nurse who returns to the COVID wards to serve her family and her country) and some not-so interesting side stories (any of the film's romantic arcs, which collectively feel unnecessary in the grand scheme of things). However, one of my favorite parts of the film happens at the very start.
During her nursing school days, Anna is sent to a seaside community (if I recall correctly, the same community where she grew up) where she and her classmates immediately identify a problem with the town's water supply, which is causing many of the residents to have gastrointestinal problems. Her group immediately goes to the mayor who dismisses her concerns, saying that there is a proper way of doing things, that the local government unit is working on (frankly unrelated) projects and that she should have gone through the proper channels. Although he kind of has a point, because he doesn't prioritize it, most probably more people get sick, Anna is told that she did the right thing but it was out of her purview, and the movie goes on. I had thought that they'd never come back to this plot thread, but Anna later returns to that community and addresses the problem, saying that nothing has changed. That's not even including the fact that the local government didn't address the vulnerability of the community to natural disasters, and that led to even more people dying, including people close to Anna.
It may not be intentional, but it does show that the scriptwriters were aware of how bad our public healthcare system is. For public health problems to play second fiddle to political concerns works to the detriment of everyone in that community, because they can legitimately affect the quality of life of every person living there. The film shows us what eventually happens in real life. It's a pragmatic way of looking at things and although sometimes I'd rather have it be idealistic, it's an interesting approach and one that I consider to be a highlight of the film.
The film ends with an abstract sequence that I initially found to be quite bizarre, but one that I eventually warmed up to due to its abstraction. It's a celebration of all the lives that came before and all the lives that were lost, a visual representation of the human sacrifices our nurses make for the sake of their families and countrymen.
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