by Reymundo Salao
One of the grim (and embarrassing) episodes of our nation's recent history is when in May 2001, the terrorist bandit group the Abu Sayyaf abducted several hostages from the upscale Dos Palmas resort on Palawan island, and taken by speedboat to southern Basilan island. Among the kidnapped group were American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham, which prompted the rescue missions to be aided by American forces. That story is now being brought to the silver screen by director Brillante Mendoza in a movie entitled "Captive"
The movie has altered the names of the actual persons involved in the real life event, and possibly altered the story itself. Its cast includes French actress Isabelle Huppert as the main character Thérèse Bourgoine (which is probably the character that represents Gracia Burnham), Angel Aquino, Mercedes Cabral, Joel Torre, Maria Isabel Lopez, Sid Lucero, Raymond Bagatsing, Mon Confiado, Baron Geisler, and Ronnie Lazaro which is cast as a character that obviously represents Abu Sabaya (leader of the kidnappers).
Although it is yet to have a general Philippine release, CAPTIVE has made its rounds at the Berline Film Festival already.
Here's how the festival describes it:
"A group of armed and masked men belonging to the Muslim Abu Sayyaf group burst into a hotel on an island resort and kidnap twelve foreign guests. The attack was intended to target employees of the World Bank, but they have already left the resort. The abductees are tourists and Christian missionaries who are now forced on a gruelling foot march through the Philippine jungle. Together, the hostages and the kidnappers find themselves having to cope with the trials of nature; gradually, the climate of fear, prejudice and hatred evolves into a strange, symbiotic relationship. The contours begin to blur, certainties are called into question. Nothing seems to be the same any more ...
As in his earlier work, Brillante Mendoza once again invites the viewer of CAPTIVE to enter the extremely ambivalent inner world of a huis clos. Taking the viewer hostage as it were, the film creates a sensibility for a series of existential threats posed by humans and nature alike and also explores with eerie magic real and spiritual ways out of the crisis. Based on historical events that occurred in 2001, the film was shot in real locations with a cast of nonprofessionals and actors."
ANTICIPATION & CRITICS' VIEWS
From the outset, the movie looks promising; impressive cast, rich production, and a director that boasts a Best Director (for the movie Kinatay) at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, probably the most prestigious and highly respected film festival in the world.
Unfortunately, recent reports came in that the movie received mixed reviews, while it suffered whiplashing negative reactions from critics like Eric Kohn who describes the movie as "lack(ing) any coherent emotional hook or worldly argument, despite taking on form and content that attempts to command both. Instead, it only evokes the sheer frustration of the situation and the ineptitude of various governments to resolve it. Everything is black-and-white: The terrorists are angry, the hostages are mortified. Ironically, "Captive" makes a good case for a movie that could be this dumb on purpose: Only the occasional bursts of gunfire inject life into the frame." He gave it a D+ rating.
While critics like Jessica Kiang stated "Mendoza has actually managed to invigorate both a potentially tired story and his own potentially tiring tendencies and to create a work of urgency you live, rather than watch." and gave it an A- rating.
As much as I want this to be truly a great movie, I could somehow predict in which points could the movie truly be a failure. The problem in many of Mendoza's work is that some of them feel too intentionally experimental. Being too raw and bordering into looking like a documentary can look great. But there are limits to that. This type of style can get pretty tedious and tiresome to watch. I was thinking that was the reason why I was not able to finish watching the movie "Lola" because it got too boring pretty quick.
Could it be laziness? Or some intentional style that seemed too pretentious. Sometimes focusing on intentionally trying to be "raw" becomes an overused disposable gimmick for art-savvy hipsters and posers. Now I get why Mendoza seemed to be the obvious victim in one of the satirical jokes in the movie "Ang Babae sa Septic Tank"
But enough of the speculation on the negative, truth is, we have not seen this movie yet to give out a concrete opinion of it. I'm just hoping that my pessimisms turn out wrong.
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