ANG BABAENG HUMAYO
Lav Diaz has found the formula, it seems, for a film that thinks out about guilt, revenge and the questions one asks in isolation. There is enough time–more than enough time—to look at the character and see them think and talk about their thoughts. The luxury of space turns into a surplus of time for us to travel with the characters.
Tito Genova Valiente
ANG BABAENG HUMAYO
[I]to ngayon ay pagninilay sa historikal na sandal sa panahon ng pelikula at ang patuloy na gravitas ng panlipunang pwersang kumakalinga, nagpapatuloy at nagpapalawak sa pagdanas sa kahirapan, kawalan-katarungan, pandudusta sa representatibo ng mayoryang mamamayan- tauhan sa pelikula.
Rolando Tolentino
BABOY HALAS
Geographies imagined and deterritorialized forests are bountiful in Bagane Fiola’s Baboy Halas. Where the density of the forest in any cinema is a preparation for a didactic discourse on how they will soon be destroyed by man, in this film, the forests are there, nonconfrontational, the wildness and wilderness given equations in a measure of a Nature we have always wanted to localize and yet never succeed to do.
Tito Genova Valiente
BABOY HALAS
Set deep within the lush tropical forests of Sitio Maharlika in the Marilog District of Davao City, director Bagane Fiola’s Baboy Halas (subtitled as Wailings in the Forest) presents an absorbing account of the Matigsalog lumad tribe’s daily life in the highlands.
Mike Rapatan
MA’ ROSA
Muli na namang napabilang at napailalim ang manonood sa pisikal na kapaligiran at piniling tanghalan ng cinema ni Brillante Ma. Mendoza. Ito ay cinema ng mga bagay na nakahuhuminding at apokaliptiko sa pagsisiwalat ng mga katotohanan sa kasulukuyang takbo ng buhay.
Benilda Santos
MA’ ROSA
While the film through Odyssey Flores’ relentlessly probing camera work graphically exposes the underbelly of this anarchic market, the intended investigative style ends up being a flat survey. The film does little to enlighten and lead the viewer to a new understanding of the corrupt culture’s root causes and driving factors that perpetuate its existence.
Mike Rapatan
PAGLIPAY
Unlike rom coms that thrive on formulas and depend on mestizo actors and the “kilig” factor to attract their screaming fans, this rural love story with very ordinary-looking leads effectively exposes the difference between how love is seen by Aeta custom law and how it compares to lowland liberal mores.
Nicanor Tiongson
PAGLIPAY
Director and writer Zig Dulay triumphs in his assemblage of well-motivated scenes that propel the narrative of the Aeta community specifically the love story of Atan, Ani, and Rain. It is also the story of the Aetas’ love for their land, their way of life being close to nature and looking at modernity with caution.
Gigi Javier Alfonso
PAMILYA ORDINARYO
Madaling akusahan ang Pamilya Ordinaryo na poverty porn dahil sa subalternong tauhang namumuhay at nakatira sa lansangan ng syudad, kwento ng walang pinag-aralang mahilig mag-selfie at mag-text (gaya rin ng may pinag-aralan), nag-aanak nang gayon na lang, madaling magtiwala, nanakawan ng sanggol, nag-kidnap ng sanggol, isang pelikula ng laglagan ng mga naglaglag sa mundong ibabaw.
Rolando Tolentino
PAMILYA ORDINARYO
Sa minimalista, pragmatiko, at sensitibong direksyon ni Roy, at sa husay ng orkestrasyon ng pag-arte ng pareha nina Kilip at Martin, at maging ng bawat isa sa nalalabing cast, at sa matalas na istratehiya ng pagpapalit-palit ng idyoma, tono at tinig ng mga tauhan, naitawid sa manonood nang maluwag at walang munti mang kabawasan, ang realismong may pintig ng tunay na buhay at nang walang garalgal ng eksaherasyon.
Benilda Santos
WOMEN OF THE WEEPING RIVER
Women of the Weeping River is a slow, quiet film punctuated by sparse bullets fired and breaking the silence. It is a film that forecasts an all-out war… a prequel as one of the many narratives that play in the complex interweaving of the fight for land, the right to move freely, the grounds to raise their families and worship their God.
Gigi Javier Alfonso
WOMEN OF THE WEEPING RIVER
But the film’s greater achievement is in its ability to make us understand how rido destroys people as human beings, how it dismisses tenderness as weakness and replaces compassion with hatred. In this the film succeeds because both conflict and character are simultaneously developed in the scenes that show the characters’ innermost thoughts and feelings.
Nicanor Tiongson
The aforementioned films were the nominees for the Best Picture Category at the 40th Gawad Urian in 2017.
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