Busong

I missed director Auraeus Solito's widely-acclaimed debut film Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros) back when it was widely released in 2007, and I confess I always regretted not seeing it; I heard and read really good things about it. When my wife told me that she and Mr. Solito were actually college classmates and that he had invited her to a screening of one of his most recent films, Busong (Palawan Fate), a smaller, more independent film than Maximo Oliveros which has received considerably less mainstream attention, I pretty much jumped at the opportunity.

Busong, as the director himself has said, is equal parts myth, personal experience, and imagination,and what an imagination it is.

The film, set entirely on the island of Palawan, begins with the introduction of the mythical Punay (Alessandra di Rossi) a girl with sores on all over her body whose brother, Angkadang (Rodrigo Santikang) carries her from place to place in search of a cure for her affliction, which she has had since birth and for which reason her feet have never touched the ground. As they travel in search of the one who can heal her, the two of them meet three people, the first being a woman named Ninita (Bonivie Budao), whose husband, a logger named Tony (Walter Arenio) meets a tragic fate while cutting down a sacred tree, the second being a fisherman and loving father named Lulong (Dax Alejandro) who is chased off his traditional fishing ground by a foreigner (Chris Haywood) and his goons, and the last one a Manila backpacker named Aris (Clifford Banagale) who has come home to Palawan after many years in the city and whose connections to the land run deeper than he may realize. All of these characters must meet their fate, or, as the title says their "busong."

Though di Rossi is obviously the only high-profile Filipino actress in this movie (although Banagale had a small role in Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno some years back), she hardly gets any screen time, which to my mind is a good thing, not because I don't appreciate her talents but simply because it's the various Palawan-born actors who really carry this film.

The story of Ninita, arguably the most tragic of the lot, is also the longest of the three "mini-films" that take place within the greater tapestry of Busong. Budao carries a considerable burden here, given both her extended screen time, which is one of the longest, and the physical demands of her role, which in several scenes has her running at full speed, barefoot, on a rocky beach. Hers is a powerful screen presence, and her acting is never overstated. I'll admit that her rather voluptuous figure, visible even through her somewhat shapeless dress, caught my eye time and again but Solito was so judicious with his shot selection that her flesh enhanced, rather than distracted, from the experience. Of all the "mini-stories" though, I confess that this one felt the least coherent. Solito went out on a limb with this particular segment of his film, with slightly mixed results.

The story of Lulong and his son is the one I connected to as a father, and of the three it is the most compact. It takes place on a very short strip of beach, and happens in the shortest amount of time. Dax Alejandro has a number of touching scenes with his young son, though he does not quite make the impact that Budao did in her scenes. Still, like Budao, he conveys the plight of a man on a collision course with fate, but who faces it with courage and quiet resolve.

The final story, that of Aris, is the one that most directly intertwines with Punay's travails because it eventually falls upon Aris, who is a shaman by birthright, to heal Punay's wounds. Banagale, the most seasoned of the performers in the film, although still a newcomer to Filipino cinema, captures the pathos of a man who has come home to Palawan after spending much of his life in Manila. Perhaps Banagale drew inspiration from the fact that he had spent most of his life in the United States before coming home to shoot this movie. Aris is Solito's alter-ego and he echoes the pain of having grown up with a mother who was ashamed of her own culture. The reasons for this shame are evident as, in one scene where Aris accompanies his friends and their baby to the doctor, they are mocked as "mountain folk" or "Palawan." To save Punay, who needs a spiritual healer more than any doctor, Aris has to draw deep within himself, and Banagale conveys that inner conflict quite effectively to my mind. Punay IS Palawan, after all, ravaged with sores the way Palawan is pockmarked with rapacious miners and relentless woodcutters. The land's pain is her own, and ultimately it is up to the spirit of her people to save her.

There is a primal power to the way this film was captured, from the use of natural sound and in many cases light to the rocky, untrodden paths chosen for many of the scenes. It's a far cry from the postcard-quality scenery used to plug Palawan in the tourist advertisements, but it's no less beautiful in its rawness. Of course, popular tourist hub Honda Bay featured rather prominently in the underwater scenes, but for the most part I saw in this film a Palawan I had never seen before, not in any of the flashy the ads and not when I went there a couple of years ago and did the whole tourist routine.

This is an environmental-themed movie that speaks to the heart more than any bombastic CGI-fest like Avatar ever could. It has heartfelt, wonderfully rendered performances and a director with a singular vision and deep love for his native culture that translates into a truly powerful viewing experience.

4.5/5