A Short Film About the Indio Nacional (Or the Prolonged Sorrow of Flilpinos) (2006)
Directed by Raya Martin
Genres - Avant-garde / Experimental, Drama |
Sub-Genres - Historical Epic, Political Drama |
Run Time - 97 min. |
Countries - Philippines |
MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Nathan Southern
With his experimental work A Short Film about the Indio Nacional (Or the Prolonged Sorrow of Flilpinos), director Raya Martin creates a tetrapartite homage to the D.W. Griffith-era silent film - with marked influence by the French realists - and weaves a sociopolitical fable about the Filipino struggle for independence during the last decade of the 19th century. After a 23-minute, color opening sequence (done on video with three shots and a fixed camera) that has a man reading an allegorical story about the plight of the nation to his wife, Martin tells three consecutive stories in black-and-white - stories of male nationals coming to a gradual understanding of the meaning of liberty, first a young boy, then an adolescent, then an adult man. Thus, the film also functions as an unbridled homage to the common person.
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Philippines