‘Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong’
By: Rianne Hill Soriano
Mes de Guzman’s ‘Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong’ (’The Road to Kalimugtong’), 2nd Prize at the 7th Cinemanila International Film Festival, takes into account a gentle, understated story of two orphans in Benguet whose lives consist solely of making the arduous journey to school and back, traversing the mountains, rivers, and hanging bridges. This lyrical tale of faith and survival is performed with freshness and spontaneity by real Igorot kids - promoting images that are feudal, subtle, and yet empowering.
Jinky (Analyn Bangsi-il), and Potpot (Rhenuel Ordonio) tend to their invalid grandfather, keep the house in order while their brothers are away, and cross mountains and gorges just to get to school everyday. They survive the everyday living in a very tight budget. With their elder brothers, Manong Ramil and Manong Ronaldo, who have inherited the task of looking after their siblings and grandfather after their parents’ death, take on odd jobs as vegetable packers, market porters, carpenters, all-around handyman, among others, to provide food and for the family. When the older brothers haven’t been back for months after working in a mining company, Jinky and Potpot and their grandfather try to subsist with the ’sayote’ growing at their backyard. Meanwhile, the two kids continue to pray for their brothers’ safety and their own salvation.
This bittersweet narrative gains its strength from the simple but sincere images rendered in a realistic point of view as seen through the two siblings. For the viewers, the film experience is like trekking the mountains, tiring, tough, and a bit blurry at first, but once you get the hang of the journey, its slowness and harshness yields to much learnings. And later on, you see beyond the hard parts, and you get to appreciate life’s multi-faceted meanings further.
Mes de Guzman’s keen attention to detail without being too theatrical about it uplifts the realism and the docu-style treatment for this film. Amidst its rawness, seemingly shot with a regular handycam (as compared to the high end HDV, 24P, and HD cameras sprouting around for broadcast quality digital videos), its instincts keep up to the strong valuable points of the story - and they are sincerely touching. The comedy and the drama are on the right places. The documentation of the life and culture of the kids, their family, and their town work together for a clear portrait of life and subsistence. Without going over board through too much sobbing, shouting, and verboseness, the impressively natural acting of the characters further uplifts the film’s quality. With the good characterization and effective use of the film language, the audience feels the fun, the hope, the pain, the longing, the emptiness, the coldness, and the exhaustion.
Slowly but surely developing from start to end, ‘Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong’ has a consistency worthy of distinction. It may have a common theme; but its simplicity is fascinating.
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