BLACKOUT
Philippines, 2007, 98 minutes. Colour.
Robin Padilla, Iza Calzado.
Directed by Ato Bautista.
Blackout is a psychological thriller. It focuses on an alcoholic father who looks after his young son. He has driven his wife away – though telephoning her continually asking her to come back. He suffers from blackouts. He discovers blood on the fender of his car and on himself. He is mystified as to what has happened. His neighbour is looking for her young daughter who seems to have disappeared. His son says that he sees the girl – and the father beats him and alienates his little boy.
We are shown the man finding the body of the girl, burying it in the sewerage system of a block of downbeat apartments. One of the inhabitants continually threatens to expose the man.
The film turns out to be a what if…? a nightmare with the man in hospital, trying to come to grips with his psychological state as well as his alcoholism.
The film is different from many Filipino films – a plot that could be used in any context. However, it has a nightmarish intensity which makes it an interesting psychological study.
1. The impact of the film? As realism? As a nightmare? Psychological states?
2. The Filipino setting, the squalid part of the city, the apartments, the streets? The hospital? The musical score? An authentic feel?
3. The portrait of Gil, his appearance, scruffy, drunk? His waking up? His blackouts and alcoholic condition? His vehicle, the blood, his puzzle? Looking after his son, washing and dressing him, taking him to school? The bond between father and son? The son reassuring him about blackouts, about the boy at school who had them as well? Belen, her daughter Isabel, her presence, the absence of the girl? Gil finding the body? His burying it in the cistern? The neighbour, his asking about repairs, his complaints? The smell, the system? The pressure on Gil? Belen searching? Nino saying he had seen the girl, his beating his son, his son’s reaction? His further collapses? His being haunted by the girl? His waking up in hospital – the nightmare, what if…?
4. Nino, his age, dependence on his father, his absent mother? Washing, dressing, fat? Going to school? His friendship with Isabel? Her disappearance? His seeing her? His father beating him? His comments about the boy at school with blackouts? Wanting to help his father?
5. The neighbour, his look, complaints? His pressure on Gil? The search? The authorities?
6. Isabel, as a little girl, in the neighbourhood, her disappearance, her appearances to Nino and to Gil?
7. The ending – and the audience sharing Gil’s nightmare and then discovering that it was a nightmare?
