The importance of seeing "Ang Larawan"
For those who failed to watch the Best Film winner of the Metro Manila Film Festival, "Ang Larawan," they missed so much. There are only a few movies that I have ever seen that I can consider as masterpieces of Philippine movie arts. They include "Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon" starring a teenage Christopher de Leon, "Himala" starring Nora Aunor, the recent "Heneral Luna," and now "Ang Larawan," originally written by national artist Nick Joaquin, a multi-awarded novelist and literary giant who called it "Portrait of the Filipino as an Artist." It was earlier staged for many years as a stage musical.
The musical was transformed into a movie by Cultucurtain Musicat Productions Inc., led by well-known singer Celeste Legaspi. The movie centers on two elderly sisters, Candida (played by Joanna Ampil) and Paula (played by Rachel Alejandro) put in a dilemma in the midst of financial difficulties, whether or not to sell their father's last masterpiece to an American who offered to buy it for $10,000. It was a beautiful story that focuses on the importance of upholding Filipino values over material gain. The acting was impeccable and the music of Maestro Ryan Cayabyab was spectacular.
This movie truly deserved Best Film, beating nominees like "Siargao" of Director Paul Soriano, "Ang Panday" starring Coco Martin, and such popular nonsense as "The Revengers" that, (to be brutally frank about this) insults the intelligence of Filipinos, and yet has been patronized by the masses.
"Ang Larawan" is, to borrow that biblical adage, "a breath of fresh air inside a catacomb of stench and decay." It warms our hearts to realize there are still artists who do not make movies mainly for money. It is inspiring to see movies that makes us think, feel uplifted, and trusts us to understand the deeper meanings of each scene, and the higher values it propagates.
No wonder, this movie was chosen for the Gatpuno Antonio J. Villegas Cultural Award. It is the only one among the eight entries that teaches us about our culture, history, values, and idiosyncrasies. Ampil deserves the Best Actress award, and Cayabyab won Best Musical Score. It also won Best Production Design, showing Philippine society at the turn of the century, the Spanish and American influence, and the struggles of Filipinos to establish their national identity as rumors of an impending war troubled the nation.
The importance of seeing "Ang Larawan" is for us to better understand how the Filipino became what he is today; always suspicious, somehow angry, and never able to fully trust. It explains how his wounded past has shaped his troubled present and his recurrent fears of a perennially uncertain future.