Cora (played brilliantly by Geraldine Villamil) is a farmer. Her farming land was granted to her by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) but due to a bunch of technicalities, that same land was taken away from her. She's now being evicted from her home in order to turn it into a dumping ground for foreign trash. Along with a slew of other events (including the death of a beloved family member), Cora decides to secede from the Philippines and declare her own nation state - ang Republika ng Pipolipinas.
As Cora defends her new state from the government, her efforts start gaining attention from other people partially thanks to the power of social media. Micronations in general are created for many reasons, and for Cora and many like her, the republic is a way of political protest, one whose aims resonate with a bunch of people. Some of these people include an activist, a tour guide, and a SK (Sangguniang Kabataan) member who wants to use the position to gain more political power. They all have different ways of wanting to run this fledgling nation, ways that don't exactly jive with Cora's initial vision. As the film goes on, Cora takes a crash course in statecraft, something she has little experience in. A nation's strength is in its people, but it is in these same people where differences in opinion, corruption and unfettered ambition can tear it apart.
Director Renei Dimla treats Republika ng Pipolipinas as a satirical documentary or a mockumentary. On one hand this brings a little bit of levity into what is already a very serious topic. But on the other hand, this treatment isn't always maintained with the film giving way to a more traditional narrative format in some scenes, and the comedy might sometimes take away from the legitimate concerns brought up by Cora, especially during some scenes where it feels like she's the butt of the joke.
But that same treatment also leads to a pretty interesting observation about Republika ng Pipolipinas, and that is in how it reflects on the idea of the filmmaker (specifically, the documentarian) with respect to politics, how much of their politics do they insert in their work, or should they stay neutral. The creation of art is influenced by the beliefs of those who make it, and subsequently, as audiences, we are influenced by our own beliefs when we witness it. For most of Republika ng Pipolipinas the documentarian is silently observing everything that happens, serving as our POV. A crucial scene near the end poses this question of neutrality and challenges it.
There's a scene in the beginning of the film when the filmmaker is asked about Cora and is says, and he refers to her republic as "imbentong bansa," an invented nation. But if we think of nations as institutions, aren't all nations imagined? Power and authority is contrived, true nationhood is built up by the people. And if these nations don't serve the people they claim to serve, what's the worth in having them at all?
No comments:
Post a Comment