MUSMOS NA SUMIBOL GUBAT NG DIGMA

Philippines, 2018, 105 minutes, Colour.
Junyka Santarum, JM Salvado.
Directed by Iar Lionel Arondaing,

This is a very beautiful film to look at, an island setting and its forests, the beauty of the river and the streams along with the natural sounds. And it has a beautiful musical score to add to the atmosphere?

Throughout the film there are quotations from the Koran, with a solemn voice-over. The quotations indicate the narrative, which has explicit links with the book of Genesis. This includes the beauty of creation, an allegory of Adam and Eve with two young children and baby, an allegory of Cain and Abel with the two fathers involved in feud, struggle and killing.

The film is framed by a journey along the river by an old man with his grandson. He relates the story of the two children, the family feud, the deaths, the flight down the river, the difficult birth of a young child, the young daughter and the death of the mother, the daughter’s encounter with a boy whose father has been killed, she concealing the fact that she is a girl, the continuing journey, friendship. However, animosity arises when a woman breastfeeds the child during their journey and there is a revelation that the girl’s father killed the boy’s father.

The narrative and the text from the Koran highlight that there needs to be forgiveness, reconciliation – and there is a final revelation that the old man telling the story was the baby born on the river.

Audiences not familiar with Islam and the Koran need to surrender themselves to this kind of storytelling and immerse themselves in the atmosphere and the spirituality of reconciliation.

1. A Filipino- Muslim film? Islam in the Philippines? In Mindanao? The long traditions?

2. The location photography, the island and forests, the rice fields and the fire, the river and travel? The musical score? The creation of an atmosphere of the 19th century in the Philippines, an atmosphere for a folktale?

3. The use of the Koran, the range of texts, the text parallel with the story of creation and Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the links with the book of Genesis? The further quotations from the Koran? The voice-over? The solemn tone?

4. The old man and his grandson, going down the river, telling the tale, his grandson wary, suspicious? The nature of the story, the memoir? The issue of the hat and its burial? The revelation of who the old man was?

5. The family, the burning rice fields, the family feuds? The father staying behind? The pregnant mother? The young girl, guiding the boat? The difficult birth? The young girl fostering the child? Her mother’s attack on her? The prospects?

6. The encounter with the boy, his age, the girl pretending that she was a boy, her mother urging her to cut her hair? The mother dying?

7. The two children with the baby, travelling on the river, the interactions, the difficulties of her concealing her identity, the issue of being? Food? The friendship between the two?

8. The woman, breast feeding the baby? The girl and her reaction? Aggressive?

9. The revelation of the truth, the boy and the death of his father, the visualising, the Cain and Abel references with the the children as Adam and Eve? The nature of the feud? Symbolised by the wearing of the hat, the girl reacting, the burying of the hat?

10. The children coming to terms with their situation, continuing to travel? The move towards reconciliation? And their coming to the settlement?

11. And the revelation that the old man was the baby and continuing with the saga?