A young deaf-mute boy, Lucas (Enzo Osorio) lives a quiet life in a quiet seaside town. But that peace is upended when the local priest (Rom Factolerin) rapes him. Lucas' parents (Mylene Dizon and Nor Domingo) take the priest to court, but they are immediately met with backlash from the community. Meanwhile, Maya (Ina Feleo) is a sign language teacher who faces marital difficulties at home. She is eventually assigned to Lucas' case.
There's so much tension in the ensuing courtroom scenes in Lawrence Fajardo's The Leaving, partly because of Fajardo's expert treatment of point of view: much of the film, especially during crucial parts of dialogue, are filmed in Lucas' perspective, as if to make us feel his confusion and anxiety. Since Lucas doesn't have any formal training in sign language, relay interpreters are used: one translating the hearing parts of sign language, and another to translate that standardized sign language to something that Lucas understands. The anxious waiting in between his responses creates a sort of gap in between the unconscious tension that we feel through the filmmaking and what is created when we understand what the boy is saying.
Maya's sideplot in the film involves her being unable to speak out against her abusive husband. This sideplot doesn't entirely gel with the rest of the story, though the intent is to show that a disability is not the reason why people are unable to speak, it is courage (or the lack thereof) that prevents them from doing so. It is ironic that the one person who wants to speak the loudest is physically unable to do so properly with the world of whose who can speak and hear.
And what takes his voice away from him? It is a lack of institutional support (education, interpretation, etc) for deaf and deaf-mute people. Without support, attaining justice becomes exponentially harder. I've found one quote that sums this up quite well, and it comes from a support group for disabled people: the biggest barrier for people with disabilities is not merely their own disabilities, it is how society disables them. In our neglect, we are the ones disabling our own people. That's a chilling thought.
*
Shorts A Short Reviews
The first two shorts that I saw in the program dealt with grief; having gone through grief myself, I found myself connecting with these two shorts the most. In the first, Abogbaybay, three brothers deal with the untimely loss of their mother in different ways: one is firmly in denial, seeking the sea to find his mother, another takes the responsibility to bring her home, and a third lets his grief run wild, floating like ashes in the sky.
I'm not sure if it was Ayala Malls Manila Bay's overly loud sound system or something inherent in the film itself, but the sound design of All This Wasted Space immediately popped out to me: seemingly louder, made even more so in the cramped spaces of a house that is empty (no people) but not emptied (filled with memories). It reminds me of something I'm writing in my book about grief: that it speaks loudest in silence.
There's a lot of quirky fun in Ambot Wa Ko Kabalo Unsay I-Title Ani, in that during the creative process, sometimes you don't really know the direction a work of art is gonna go - that much is evident in the wishy-washiness of the title. It's gonna be relatable to anyone who's picked up a camera on a whim.
An Baga Sa Dalan reminds me a lot of Khavn's Balangiga, opening with a depiction (in this case, a recollection) of horrific violence, and then a journey to a mythical land as a means of emotional and spiritual healing. However, the treatment in this case isn't as well made, even though it deals a lot with pertinent issues that should definitely be addressed.
And finally, there is another kind of response to a kind of death that is not grief in Pamalandong sa Danow. In it, people fight with all they have to stop the end of their way of life, to push back the darkness so to say. It's a hard battle, but in the solidarity these three friends have, that fight is a whole lot easier than fighting it alone.
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