thy womb: fingers crossed for fair chances

11/18/12

fingers crossed for fair chances

Let there be more laurels. As far as fair prospects are concerned for Thy Womb since it hauled three awards on top of the rave reviews from its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, the month of November promises yet another chance for Ms. Nora Aunor and director Brillante Mendoza to take center stage again.

Where Aunor and Mendoza have made history as the first Filipinos to be nominated as best actress and best director at the 6th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), hopes are afloat for another round of applause at the APSA ceremony in Brisbane, Australia on the 23rd of November. Seven days later on the 30th, trophies will be handed out to the winners of the 43rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa where Thy Womb is among the 15 films selected for IFFI's International Competition section.

The film's competitive edge at APSA and IFFI come in the heels of its sold-out exhibition at the ongoing Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) where the audience's reaction has been reported as rapturous as the critics' commendation. “Lyrical and beautifully acted,” exclaims one mini-review echoed by another upbeat dispatch that quoted one film critic/curator: "What a brilliant film! It is very specific, authentic yet very universal."

Such positive vibes for Thy Womb from its audience in Brisbane also radiated from Taiwanese audience who came at the recent Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival where Thy Womb was showcased. “A quiet, fascinating look at Tawi-Tawi..." So went one of the tweets of Ruben Nepales, the incumbent chairperson of the Hollywood Foreign Press, who saw the film in Taipei and left the theater with all thumbs up: “Nora Aunor’s expressive eyes are reasons enough to watch the film. Bravo, Nora Aunor!" (Click here to read Nepales's Twitter comment.)

No less touched and moved by what she saw was Paula Ďurinová, a documentary filmmaker, who watched Thy Womb at the Bratislava International Film Festival in Slovakia. In her personal message to the film's Facebook page, Ďurinová wrote:“I just want to thank you for this amazing film... I am still deeply touched by the story and the characters... so once more I simply thank you for this beautiful, sad, human, strong experience." She added that Aunor's performance "was so natural and honest."

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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