thy womb: March 2013

3/19/13

the best of asia-pacific: triple triumph for a singular performance

The Philippines' greatest performer reaffirms her world-class caliber by winning her third international award as Best Actress for her performance in 'Thy Womb' at the 7th Asian Film Awards (AFA) in Hong Kong.

As a barren Bajau midwife coping with the cultural burden and irony of her own infertility in Brillante Mendoza's masterpiece, Ms. Nora Aunor previously won the Bisato d'Oro (Golden Eel) critics' prize at the 69th Venice International Film Festival and the 6th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) in Brisbane, Australia. Making history as the first Filipino to win Best Actress in the three awarding ceremonies, Aunor's world-class achievements in Brillante Mendoza's masterpiece have rendered it a breeze for the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to count her among the awardees of the Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honors) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) recently.

Aunor's performance, celebrated both by foreign and local critics, has been cited in a poll of cinema bloggers as the best of 2012 after she was honored at the 2012 Metro Mania Film Festival where Thy Womb hauled the lion's share of the major awards. It has also romped off similar honors at the Gawad Pasado, a guild of critics from the academe.

Congratulations as well to Mr. Eddie Garcia for winning Best Actor in AFA for his role as a dying gay Noranian. Both Aunor and Garcia have previously collaborated as actress-director in the classic 'Atsay' (where they won as Best Performer and Best Director at the 1977 Metro Manila Film Festival) as co-actors in Leroy Salvador's 'Tinik sa Dibdib' and Joel Lamangan's 'Bakit May Kahapon Pa?' where Aunor won Best Actress at the Gawad Urian and at the Penang International Film Festival in Malaysia. Long live, world-class thespians of the Philippines!

Click the videos below to savor La Aunor's winning moments and her royal treatment from the paparazzi at the red carpet.

Moreover, click the videos of La Aunor's previous victories at the 6th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) in Brisbane, Australia as well as at the 69th Venice International Film Festival where she won the critics' prize for Best Actress.

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