Movie No. 44 (Cinemalaya 2018): MUSMOS NA SUMIBOL SA GUBAT NG DIGMA
Musmos na Sumibol sa Gubat ng Digma (2018)
Director: Iar Arondaing
Cast: Junyka Sigrid Santarin, JM Salvado
In Tagalog, with English subtitles
Eshal, a recently orphaned young girl and her infant brother wanders around a forest, which can be somewhere in Mindanao. Disguised as a boy, she meets Farhan, a boy who could be her age. Farhan is from another clan that is at war with Eshal's.
Director: Iar Arondaing
Cast: Junyka Sigrid Santarin, JM Salvado
In Tagalog, with English subtitles
Eshal, a recently orphaned young girl and her infant brother wanders around a forest, which can be somewhere in Mindanao. Disguised as a boy, she meets Farhan, a boy who could be her age. Farhan is from another clan that is at war with Eshal's.
This movie is rich in imagery - the river, the burning huts, etc. There are immersive scenes, reminiscent of Lav Diaz's. Cinematography is exquisite, which is further enhanced when verses from the Qur'an are chanted over some important scenes for artful narrative flow. It's easy to doze off in the kind of film. I didn't. The movie's subtitles for the Qur'an verses kept me awake.
I love the movie. However, the movie would've been more authentic if the dialogues were in local dialect instead of Tagalog.
Rating: 3.0/4.0
Date seen: August 7, 2018
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