By PABLO A. TARIMAN
THE most redeeming feature of the recently concluded Cine Malaya Independent Film Festival is that moviegoers are able to see realistic reflections of Philippine society as seen by independent filmmakers.
These films are no doubt a much-needed respite from the so-called “kilig” films that make money for the mainstream film industry.
From what has transpired in the ten-day festival, one can safely say there is solid audiences for indie films and that they are the most discerning and intelligent ones one has encountered this side of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
The audience receptions are almost always spontaneous; the appreciation comes from something coming from the heart and mind.
To illustrate, Carlo Obispo’s “Purok 7” provides sharp, if, disturbing contrast to Jason Paul Laxamana’s “Babagwa” (The Spider’s Lair).
Obispo’s film has a quiet, if, disarming, quality about it that grows on the viewer who is ushered in the rural areas where poor people head for abroad to find economic redemption. Here you see the simple pleasures of rural folks and the simple dreams of a family dislocated by the matriarch who left for abroad only to metamorphose as a death convict in China after being involved with drug trafficking.
The mother’s fate is a mere backdrop of this film. The brother and sister team — sensitively played by Krystle Valentino and Migs Cuaderno – gives the viewer an unalloyed view of rural life even as there is an impending family tragedy about to descend on them. The presence of Julian Trono as Valentino’s love interest provides heartwarming scenes of young love about to unfold. Arnold Reyes and Angeli Bayani complete a good acting ensemble. One must say this is an unpretentious but truly auspicious film debut of Obispo.
If “Purok 7” is all about rural idyll shattered by the plight of local OFWs, Jason Paul Laxamana’s “Babagwa” (The Spider’s Lair) is about lower depths in urban setting. The film is peopled by denizens of ciberage, they who steal and fake face book accounts and change SIM cards for assorted quick-money schemes. These internet scammers — played with riveting, if, jolting intensity by Alex Vincent Medina and Joey Paras, — require the birds of prey to be versatile actors as well to entice unsuspecting internet victims. The film gives us a sordid inside view of the world of internet scammers and their equally deprave love and sex lives.
Medina’s love partner is perennially obsessed with sex calisthenics and going to Palawan, Joey Paras, as the scam guru, is wickedly cold and calculating and his eyes perennially focused on cold cash and the male flesh. Another schemer — played by Kiko Matos — portrays the fictional Bam Bonifacio with relish.
Towards the end, the restless scammer (Medina) falls in love with an older but still attractive sex tease played coquetishly by Alma Concepcion. An explosive falling out jolts the viewers and here you see the best of Medina and Paras in a series of violent confrontation scenes.
Meanwhile, Paras finds a new victim (played brilliantly by Nico Antonio) as a successor to the disenchanted Medina.
The film has the exciting pace and suspense of a thriller and as the love-lorn scammer finds his comeuppance towards the end of the film, the highly appreciative audience burst into applause.
As they are, “Purok 7” and “Babagwa” are contrasting tales of rural idyll and urban blight in Philippine society.
For what they are, the two films are – you might say – the real and untold state of the nation in transition.
For these highly revealing film output, cineastes have reasons to cite Laxamana and Obispo as the filmmakers to watch in the next Cine Malaya Film Festival.