#MARTIAL LAW MOVIE FULL#Sari Lluch Dalena on a relatively neglected aspect of the era: the women incarcerated for political crimes.ĭalena’s film follows Oryang’s (Alessandra de Rossi) journey from University of the Philippines student to countryside doctor to incarcerated radical, but isn’t content to tell the story straight - her inner independent filmmaker insists on inserting documentary footage of Martial Law turmoil, time-lapse photography of overhead skies, unblinking passages full of mysterious forests, giant eye closeups and (à la Bresson) other body parts. The film is short on incidental details in an almost Brechtian manner (the workplace could well be labeled “Factory,” the protagonist “Nun,” the protesters “Strikers”) but like the best of Brecht it’s riveting political theater, paring away what is extraneous to focus on a coherent and forceful message.īy film’s end our eponymous nun-hero (Vilma Santos in a beautifully understated performance) stands center screen (Center stage?) with a clear blue Brechtian sky for backdrop delivering a calm yet moving call for action: “If not now, when? If not us, who?” With this film’s release (a year after Ninoy Aquino’s assassination rocked the regime) you could feel the dictator’s grip on society that much loosened, the audience watching that much heartened.Ĩ Ka Oryang ( Comrade Oryang, Sari Dalena, 2011) Mike de Leon working from a spare, elegantly structured Jose “Pete” Lacaba script about a textile factory strike, a nun’s political awakening, the forces of corporate capitalism and fascism in an unholy marriage. Follows the story of Serge Osmeña (Richard Gomez) and Geny Lopez (Christopher de Leon), one the son of a former president, the other the son of a media mogul, the film is rare testimony that, yes, even the upper classes were not immune to Marcos’s powergrab.īeyond that it’s Chito Roño’s effectively noirish look at how things felt during those early days: the fear, the paranoia, the sense of helplessness as you’re locked in a room and don’t know what’s going on, what will happen to you, what will become of your family and friends.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |