My big thanks to Mr. Villasanta for this writeup. This was previously posted in ABS-CBN News Online. The page had been cached, though. Luckily, I was able to salvage this copy.

Director M.C. Sulit described his directorial debut film, Barako, a macro realist approach to narrative.

The indie film which was first shown during the world premiere section of Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival at the Cultural Center of the Philippines several months back, has a title that might be a misnomer though.

Based on the posters and billboards displayed at the entrance hall of the screening venue, one would think Barako was a sexist film thriving on gay sensibilities and anti-feminist tones yet the surreal design of the movie’s ad reveals a sense of historical vignettes interposed in some contemporary mundane scenes of neighborhood kids and women in huddle.

What gives the title then?

According to Sulit, the film was a testimony of his historical journey in the rustic side of a southern Tagalog province very famous for coffee beans, hence, kapeng barako from Batangas. He dropped the word kape and retained the intriguing sexist name, barako*.

"Barako," adds Sulit, symbolized the Filipino people and their quest for emancipation from various dominations that paralyze growth and progress. M.C. integrates history and the elements of film to convey a message of hope and redemption from inhumanity brought about by political abuses and social discrimination.

The film presented a succession of events and progression of the people’s odyssey from the early Spanish colonial life to the present. "Macro realism dahil hindi ito mga character study lang kundi mas malawak na lipunan ng pamilya, pakikipagkaibigan, hanapbuhay at iba pang mas malaking nasasakupan ng buhay na pang-araw-araw ang tinatalakay," explained Sulit who is an assistant (junior associate, rather) to the UST Creative Writing Center.

Too bad the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters Audio-Visual Room had a deficient projector the morning the indie opus was scheduled to be shown, the film just snapped off in the middle of the showing and so the organizer had to cancel the exhibition citing a reschedule in yet unconfirmed venue and play date.

We caught the beginning of the movie, though - including the opening credits like the production outfit named East Indie Company, the actors and other creative staff - when a revolution against the Spanish control is being hatched by the Katipuneros** in many towns of Batangas transcending to the modern setting in the rural places of the province.

The story was told from a point of view of a boy whom we supposed would age as the story progressed because the voice-over was Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera’s.

Some dialogues were noticeably didactic but Sulit was ever ready to defend them.

"Kasi, ganyan kaming mga Batagueño. We are fond of polemics. We argue a lot kahit ang mga magbubukid," said M.C.

Barako promises to be a film to watch in its entirety because the daily events are taken as history.

No nonsense literary figures also availed themselves of cameo performances like Vim Nadera, Bien Lumbera, Tots Aguila including satirist comedian Leo Martinez and other significant actors worth their salt that we could not wait to watch the next full screening of the indie creation in AB Audio-Visual Room or in any other venue.

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Following are this blogger's annotations:

*Batangueños do not use the word "barako" in the masculine context. We do not even think of it as pertaining to the male (except the male pig). It is simply a virtue of bravery to us--and that refers to both the male and the female.

**It is not about the Katipuneros fight against the Spanish (notice the Philippine flag), but rather, the Batangueño revolutionaries' (insurrectos to Americans) defense of their homeland against the invading American troops.