Festival Coverage: Cinemalaya X, Part Two
The
Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition, billed as
Cinemalaya X this year, marks its 10th anniversary as it opens on August
1-10, 2014 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, its main venue,
and at satellite venues in Greenbelt Makati, Alabang Town Center,
TriNoma and Fairview Terraces, the newest Cinemalaya satellite venue
this year, in Quezon City
Giancarlo Abrahan's Dagitab tells the story of married career academics Issey and Jimmy (Eula Valdez and Nonie Buencamino). Jimmy has been working on a book that reignites old passions in him. And while Jimmy is away, Issey deals with a scandal involving her teenage godson (Martin del Rosario). In almost any other movie, the events of this story would be treated as horrible crises. But Dagitab works differently. It shirks histrionics at every turn, sticking instead to the steady rhythms of a couple that’s been together for long enough to know that everything just passes. The film seems to actively avoid what one would recognize as big scenes. It instead gets painfully intimate, sharing these quiet little private moments that bear the honesty that can only exist between two people that truly understand each other.
Nonie Buencamino and Eula Valdez are terrific in the lead roles. It must be tricky to portray such a lived-in relationship, but the two are able to convey a history that goes well beyond what is written. The film runs a little long, but it mostly earns it. In its stillness, Dagitab often finds something transcendent: some profound truths about life that aren’t always served well by standard drama.

My main reservation with this movie is in the way the fights are shot. I'm not entirely comfortable with how stylish they look. They look like they could be scenes out of Ong Bak, the movie almost fetishizing the violence with its penchant for slow motion and dramatic lighting. It undoubtedly looks great, but one has to question the decision to make these awful, awful fights look great. Otherwise, this is a pretty solid movie with a smart dramatic core. Though set in poverty, the film is able to curb the miserablist tendencies that often go with the setting and focus on the kindness that exists in spite of the awful surroundings. But yes, those fights are more than a little discomfiting, and probably not in the way that the film intended.

The film works best when it's just capturing the everyday rhythms of life in Tondo, which go beyond what's often seen in cinematic depictions of the area. The film exhibits a genuine affection for the place, its scenes often celebrating the sense of community that persists in spite of the harshness of the situation. The plot almost feels like an intrusion. Ricky’s children come off as cartoon villains with their vague, dubious motives and their even vaguer, more dubious schemes. The schematic plotting results in quite a few awkwardly staged scenes, a lot of them involving characters having conversations in front of other characters that really shouldn’t be hearing any of this. But in spite of all that, there’s no doubt that the movie’s heart is always in the right place. And though it can sometimes be rough getting there, the various stories all end up where they needed to go.

The movie hinges on Tonio being entirely incompetent, which makes it difficult to sympathize with him when things go horribly wrong. From there, the movie only gets more difficult to swallow, as it comes to present a reprehensible act as some sort of triumph. There are all sorts of clumsy storytelling choices along the way, the film exhibiting little control over the tone of its scenes. There's a soap opera quality to all of it, the scenes often lingering a little too long on a reaction, as if waiting to cut to a commercial break.
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'Cinemalaya X' runs until 10, 2014 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (main venue) and at satellite venues in Greenbelt Makati, Alabang Town Center, TriNoma, and Fairview Terraces. For the complete movie listing, ticket prices, and screening schedules, click here.
For more information, visit www.cinemalaya.org, www.culturalcenter.gov.ph and the cinemalaya facebook page or CCP Film Office at telephone number (63 2) 832-1125 local 1704-1705 and the CCP box office at (63 2) 832-3704.
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