thy womb: FILM REVIEW: spectacular in so many ways

12/16/12

FILM REVIEW: spectacular in so many ways

The movie ‘Thy Womb’ is spectacular not just because of its expensive special effects, the hundred million-peso production budget, the star-studded main cast with hundreds of players, but for its beautiful story, the kind you just have to watch.

The location is as spectacular—the water villages in Sitangkai, Tawi-Tawi, a rich seaweed community.

What makes ‘Thy Womb’ even grander? It stars Ms. Nora Aunor and Bembol Roco, two Filipino actors whose excellence and consummate passion for their craft remain unparalleled in the local movie industry. More, ‘Thy Womb’ is by Cannes Film Festival Best Director Brillante Mendoza.

Of course, Lovi Poe turned out a splendid performance too as with the Badjao actors who played themselves as members of the water village.

The cinematography in ‘Thy Womb’ offers sceneries so quiet and lovely even as they evoke wonderment on how life is for people who live on those native houses built on stilts, with seawater flowing freely underneath.

Now the story: Nora is Shaleha Sarail, a woman who had already undergone three miscarriages and can no longer give her husband, Bang-An (Bembol) a child. Shaleha will sacrifice and do everything to make her husband happy so she convinces a village girl named Mersila (Lovi) to become the second wife of Bang-An. During a traditional conference among the village elders, Mersila accepts the proposal, but in a secret talk with Bang-An, she makes him promise that after giving birth, he will separate from Shaleha.

Bang-An and Shaleha make love. A prophetic love-making. The eyes of Shaleha are wide open and wondering even as Bang-An does the ritual of a fruitless passion.

The close-up scene where Mersila gives birth that shows the head of the baby coming out is so endearing – with Shaleha as the midwife, herself, deftly assisting in the delivery. It’s a scene so tender, bordering on the miracle of life and death, that will linger in the minds of moviegoers for a long time. (CRISPENAMARTINEZ-BELEN, Bulletin Today)

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A STORY AS DEEP AS THE SEA

“I am making a film about the Bajaus, with the aim to celebrate a nonviolent people amidst a very violent world. It’s an intriguing premise about a particular people of peace living in a place of endemic violence.

One of the most interesting peoples in southern Philippines, the Bajaus are native sea-dwellers that are also found in the neigh-boring Malaysian and Indonesian archipelagos. They are the so-called sea gypsies who are skilled in building various types of boats, and widely known as fishermen, pearl divers and mat weavers.

As a film, Thy Womb examines the opposing natures of two women (Nora Aunor/Shaleha’s sterility against Lovi Poe/ Mersila’s fertility) to reflect the prevailing condition in Tawi-Tawi, a place endowed with natural beauty and rich resources but mired in economic and socio-political crises. A quiet hell of a paradise, Thy Womb’s “birth place” and its environs are constant reminders of yesterday’s conflict that has remained unresolved up to the present.

The Bajaus are considered to be the most primitive and oppressed among several ethnic groups in the region; and they assume a subordinate status in their diverse and divided community, which includes the Samal and the Tausug, among others. But in spite of this, the Bajaus are generally perceived to be non-confrontational, forgiving, seemingly contented and happy people.

When wronged, it is said that the Bajaus would simply move to another place, bringing their houseboats (lepa-lepa), constantly roving, living in harmony with nature. To this day, they are mostly looked down, degraded and much maligned by their ethnic neighbors and others, thus rendering them harmless, helpless and almost powerless.

But in their heart of hearts, are they really so, or is it just another way of life merely misunderstood by those inured to violence? With this thought and theme, and my curiosity further piqued, the narrative voice of the film has emerged loud and clear.

With intensive research and truthful depiction of certain characters and their circumstances, as articulated in the poignant tale of an aging, childless couple who resolve to find the mother of their much-wanted child, I hope Thy Womb would show a slice of life in the best possible light."

– BRILLANTE MENDOZA