MANILA, Philippines--If Brillante ?Dante? Mendoza?s main intention in filmmaking is to spur discussion and debate, the soft-spoken filmmaker has achieved his purpose. In this regard, his cinematic oeuvre?which includes ?Masahista,? ?Kaleldo,? ?Foster Child,? ?Tirador? and ?Manoro??serves him well.
Where his films are concerned, there?s hardly any middle ground?viewers either love or hate them. For the past two years, however, Dante has elevated discussions over their merits onto the world stage?most notably, at the recent Cannes (?Serbis,? ?Kinatay?) and Venice film fests (?Lola?).
This year?s Cannes festival was widely regarded by world-cinema aficionados as the ?biggest auteur showdown in recent memory??with good reason. It had four former Palme D?Or winners?Ang Lee, Lars von Trier, Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino?vying for the Golden Palm. ?Truly a formidable lineup!
Surprise winner
Mendoza, the surprise winner of Cannes? coveted Best Director prize for the searing blood-and-gore drama, ?Kinatay,? told us last week that his triumph hasn?t changed his life much?except that, these days, people take him seriously. ?Now, they listen more,? he softly mused.
And, unlike some directors who huff, puff and are ready to pop the minute you admit your reservations about their movies?and there are a good number of them out there?Dante has remained refreshingly low-key, pragmatic and open to other people?s reactions, good or bad, about his films:
Like Von Trier?s ?Anti-Christ? or Gaspar Noe?s ?Irreversible,? ?Kinatay??on view this week at Robinsons? IndieSine?isn?t for the faint-hearted. It seamlessly fuses gritty fiction and sordid fact, and rankles with its disturbing depiction of violence, as well as its characters? appalling apathy and amorality. You wonder: Have we truly become this callous?
At the heart of ?Kinatay?s? road trip to hell is 20-year-old police trainee, Peping (Coco Martin, in the most accomplished performance of his career), who?s used to making ends meet by running illegal but otherwise petty errands for his corrupt superiors. Just newly married, he obviously needs all the money he can get his hands on.
Covert operation
Then, Peping?s luck drastically changes when he agrees to take part in a covert operation. But, he belatedly realizes that the ?racket? requires him to help his bosses, Kap and Sarge (Julio Diaz and John Regala, respectively), abduct Madonna (Ma. Isabel Lopez), an aging prostitute who hasn?t paid her drug-related debt, which amounts to an arm and a leg?literally!
Mendoza proves that there?s no way to sanitize or romanticize the impact of violence and the horrors of megalomania. Moreover, he pulls no punches in showing a world mired in corruption and moral bankruptcy.
If ?Kinatay? is in-your-face and confrontational, ?Lola??which likewise drew mixed reactions at the recent Venice festival?showcases the director?s subtler side and recalls the gripping ironies and poetic undercurrents of drama in ?Kaleldo? and ?Masahista.? It?s much more accessible, but similarly engaging.
The film follows two eightysomething lolas whose paths cross when one woman?s child is stabbed to death by the other?s snatcher son.
Social commentary
As Lola Sepa (Anita Linda) and Lola Puring (Rustica Carpio) agonize over the respective death and incarceration of their loved ones, the camera follows them and soon becomes the viewers? conduit for social commentary?how abject poverty turns otherwise good people into remorseless conmen and opportunists, and how they adapt to an increasingly disaffected society.
The compelling Linda and Carpio paint touching albeit contrasting portraits of life in the slums. Their refusal to get stuck in the woe-is-me school of acting allows them to limn their characters? gray areas. Their gritty portrayals make it easy for viewers to imagine the obstacles they have to hurdle on a daily basis.
Say what you want about Mendoza?s technically wanting oeuvre, but his visual flair?which is on stirring display in a number of sequences here?helps keep the scenes and dramatic tension taut. Furthermore, it?s hard to take your eyes away from the screen when Dante?s uncompromising socio-political sensibility coalesces with his storytelling aesthetic.
