CAPTIVE

Philippines, 2012, 120 minutes, Colour.
Isabelle Huppert.
Directed by Brillante Mendoza.

With his win (unpopular with the audience who booed) as Best Director for Kinatay in Cannes 2009, Brillante Mendoza has been able to move from local, ‘guerilla’ film-making and exhibition to the world stage. In fact, he has had films in competition in Locarno (Masahista), The Foster Child, Tirador (in the Forum at Berlin), Serbis and Kinatay in Cannes, Lola in Venice. With Captive, he was in competition in Berlin and had isabelle Huppert (head of the jury which gave him the award in Cannes) as his star.

Captive is based on actual events in Mindanao in 2001-2002, when a group of local and international men and women were abducted by Abu and held to ransom. The experience of the hostages was gruelling – and Mendoza invites us to share that gruelling experience with a great attention to detail, hand-held camera work which gets in there among the captors and the hostages. Watching the film is often hard going. But, it is all very well-staged, whether in the discomfort of the jungle or in a siege in a provincial hospital. There is diary information, including hearing the news of 9/11, New Year’s Day 2002, and the final attack on the terrorists when there were only a few hostages remaining, ransoms having been paid or deaths lessening the number.

The bewilderment is well conveyed, the long voyages and continual treks in the jungle. Some characters are well delineated, others more on the periphery, and that includes captors and hostages. With Isabelle Huppert, immersing herself as always in the role, there is an anchor for international audience. She plays a social worker from France who has worked in the Philippines for five years. Other hostages include some local women, some Chinese women, an American missionary couple. The captors can be vicious, sometimes considerate (including some booy soldiers), eager for the ransom money, rather naive at times. They also take staff from the hospital after the siege. They are presented as devout, if literal in their reading of Quran texts, warriors for Allah.

At this stage, hostage taking in Mindanao was rather elementary. As the film’s ending points out, hostage taking has increased rather than been stamped out, and disputes between Muslims and Christians have not been settled.

Mendoza has moved from more intimate stories, often focused on poverty and on sexuality, to a broader Philippine and international canvas and crafted an effective film on 21st century terrorism.

1. A film from the Philippines? Mindanao? The events of 2001-2002? Terrorism, abductions, ransoms? The Muslim jihad, Philippines style?

2. Brillante Mendoza and his career, international, yet embedded in the Philippines experience and style?

3. The location photography, the resort, the captives at sea, in the jungle, the town, the hospital, the attack on the hospital, the treks through the jungle, rest in the jungle, the visit to the school? A sense of realism? The television and the announcements by the government? The visuals of 9/11? The interviews for the television?

4. The title, the reality of the capture? The guerrilla style of filming, handheld camera, attention to detail, immersing the audience in the experience of the hostages, sharing the experience and feeling it?

5. The basic situation, the guerrillas and their leader, Abu Sayyid? Ideals? Devout Muslims, quoting the Koran? Literal? Their moral stances, especially about modesty in women, sex within marriage? The forced marriages? Attitude towards government, independence in Mindanao?

6. The arrival at the resort, the rounding up of the visitors, at night, Therese and her companion, their being taken? People herded on the boats, sailing for several days, the sea, the boy being seasick, seeing the dolphins? The coastguard and the questions? The transfer to the terrorists’ boat?

7. The ransom situation, interrogating each person, the potential for money? The identities of the captives, social workers, missionaries, the intermarriages? Their contacts?

8. The personalities of the leadership, their age, experience, the young boys? The decision-making? Treatment of the hostages, the guns, harshness – yet humane touches?

9. The long treks, the effect on hostages, weariness, illness? Angers? Hopes?

10. Going to the hospital, taking over the hospital, the work of the nurses, in the wards, the patients and their kindly giving food, Therese and her gratitude? The siege, the government troops, the attacks? The plea by radio to stop the attacks because of innocent civilians being in danger?

11. The sequence of the pregnant woman, her husband, coming to the hospital, the details of the birth sequence? Changing the mood from terrorism?

12. The decision to leave, taking the nurses, the Christian nurses, the Muslims?

13. The long period spent in the jungle, the times and dates given, the gradual releases, the wounding of the hostages, their being under fire? The execution of the wounded man? The significance of the marriages, the sexual behaviour?

14. Therese, Isabelle Huppert and her screen presence? Leadership, helping the women, her grief at the death of her companion? Making the weddings joyful?

15. The missionary and her anger, her husband and his reference to God’s help? The irony of his death when under fire from the government? Therese and her interview for the television, the plea to the government, the hostages feeling abandoned? The missionary and her interview? The various leaders able to contact the hostages and find them in the jungle? The television interviewer from Manila?

16. The background of 9/11 and the information given to the hostages? Their fear that it would endanger them further? The news' sequence, Therese and her discussion with the young boy the bonding? His later taking his gun? The group diminishing, a final remnant?

17. The visit to the school, the children? The food and hospitality? The Muslim village? The leadership and the relationship with the terrorists?

18. The passing of a whole year, its toll on the hostages? The final information about terrorism in Mindanao – and that it continues, the government unable to control the terrorists? The calls of independence for Mindanao?