directed by Pepe Diokno
written by Rody Vera, Pepe Diokno, Ian Victoriano
Prior to watching this, I had not set foot in a movie theater since August, to watch Sony Pictures video game adaptation Gran Turismo. To put it simply, I had simply given up on movies. Having consumed a pretty steady diet of franchise films over the last several years, I had found myself increasingly worn down by the endless stream of sequels, remakes and reboots, even of film series that I enjoyed, and although there was the occasional original gem like Everything, Everywhere, All at Once to keep me going to the theaters, the expense of going to see a movie as well as the lure of sitting at home and streaming decent movies onto my television became too hard to resist.
And then, like a breath of fresh air came the historical drama GomBurZa, a film based on the events that led to and culminated in the martyrdom of three Filipino Catholic priests, which in turn provided the spark for the Philippine Revolution of 1896.
The story begins when the Spanish friars belonging to the Order of the Recoletos move to take control over several parishes being run by secular priests, men of the cloth born in the Philippines to Spanish fathers and native mothers, whom the "pure-blooded" Spanish friars regard with disdain. The film begins with secular priests Mariano Gomez (Dante Rivero) and Pedro Pelaez (Piolo Pascual, in a substantial supporting role) and seminarian Jose Burgos (Cedric Juan) discussing this alarming development over breakfast. Pelaez and Gomez have long been advocates for equal treatment for friars and secular priests, and Pelaez in particular, the direct mentor of the young Burgos, makes his thoughts known in the local newspaper, much to the fury of the friars.
Then, disaster strikes, and the newly-ordained Burgos finds himself without a mentor. Keenly aware of the ever-encroaching influence of the friars and of the discrimination he faces as a half-Spanish secular priest, Burgos finally writes his own manifesto and submits it to the newspapers, albeit anonymously, in which he passionately advocates for the rights and the better treatment of the secular priests born in the islands to mixed parentage, whom he dubs "Filipinos."
Little does Burgos realize that his lone manifesto sets off a seismic chain of events, sparking the flame of resistance among the young men he teaches law at the University of Santo Tomas, and even among a posse of gentlemen who, like him, are of mixed parentage, and who are tired of the power-hungry friars. They even adopt the term "Filipino." Things seem to look better when a supposedly liberal Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre assumes leadership of the Philippines Islands.
But when De la Torre is replaced with the draconian Rafael de Izquierdo, things take a truly dark turn when a series of draconian policies he imposes spark a mutiny among soldiers based in Cavite, the blame for which is inexplicably placed on Burgos, Fr. Gomez, and compulsive gambler Fr. Jacinto Zamora (Enchong Dee) who had nothing to do with Burgos' progressive leanings but who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Philippine colonial history knows how this particular story played out, but Diokno, his cast and crew have done a remarkable job of making this story accessible to the uninitiated almost purely through dialogue. His eye for atmosphere is astonishing; it really does feel like we're witnessing something happening in the 19th century, and he extracts such stunning performances from his actors that even my two young daughters raised on a steady diet of franchise movies found themselves thoroughly engaged in the narrative. Remarkably, however, the film never talks down to its audience, which is a temptation that a lot of historical dramas bearing messages are unable to resist.
Cedric Juan, in particular is simply riveting as Padre Burgos. He delivers dialogue in three different languages: Tagalog, Spanish and even Latin, and though I'm hardly an expert in the latter two I dare say he delivered his lines with utmost conviction and credibility. The supporting cast delivered similarly compelling performances but it was Juan who truly stood out.
The overall production value was outstanding as well. I'd like to give special mention to the musical score by Teresa Barrozo and the gut-wrenching sound design by Albert Michael Idioma, Louie Cadag and Melvin Rivera.
This film brought me back to a time when the Metro Manila Film Festival was something to look forward to, a time when Filipino movie producers put their very best work on display at a time when they would have movie theaters all to themselves for two weeks. In the late 90s the MMFF featured memorable films like Jose Rizal and Muro Ami, among others, and so I'm glad this year's edition seems to have brought back the tradition of featuring quality films and not just box-office fodder.
10/10
