Nabubulok Phl’s entry in Busan Filmfest
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Nabubulok (The Decaying), directed by Sonny Calvento, has been invited as the Philippine entry at the A Window on Asian Cinema section of the 22nd Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) Oct. 12 to 21.
This was confirmed in a letter from BIFF director Kang Soo-youn to Sonny. According to Soo-youn, “since its inception in 1996 as the first international film festival in Korea, BIFF has already endeavored to promote Asian cinema and to discover the future leading filmmakers. Especially last year, BIFF has screened 299 titles from 69 countries including young filmmakers’ works from various regions in Asia. Countless renowned filmmakers and actors as well as important figures from film industries and festivals around the world visit the port city of Busan every year to celebrate this dynamic industry…”
Shown at the recent Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, Nabubulok is about the mystery surrounding a missing woman, starring, among others, Gina Alajar, JC Santos, Jameson Blake and Billy Ray Galleon.
The son of Tony Calvento, Sonny is a Communication & Media Studies graduate from San Beda Alabang where he taught Scriptwriting, and a graduate of the Found Story Workshop of Armando Lao in 2015. He has been affiliated with ABS-CBN since 2010. Among his projects were the series You’re My Home, Reputasyon, Juanita Banana and Apoy sa Dagat.
Here’s director Sonny’s statement sent to The STAR:
I was only seven when I received my very first death threat. The year was 1995 and my father started hosting
Calvento Files, a crime and investigative show on ABS-CBN, the country’s largest media network. It was a hard-hitting show. It ruffled feathers. And one day, I answered the phone and a man told me that he’d kill my family. Since then, my father hired bodyguards for me and my brother, and they followed us wherever we went. That was when I realized that my childhood would never be normal again.
The show lasted for four years and within those four years, it was a normal sight to see case files scattered all over our house. Crimes became a huge part of my coming-of-age. One of these files was the most controversial rape and massacre case of the ‘90s that involved a politician’s son as one of the suspects. My father, being a journalist, was one of the key players in finding out the truth. I saw how that case progressed and how the entire country became consumed by it. Everyone had speculations, everybody believed in their own versions of truth.
In hindsight, it made me realize that in a crime investigation, it is not just the truth about the victim, the suspect and the witness that is being exposed. It also exposes the character of the people around and reflects how we, as a nation, value truth and justice.
That case dragged on for years. Eventually, people lost interest in it and everyone, including our family, decided to move on. After my father’s show ended, we tried to live an ordinary life. Crimes, as always, happened everyday. But we dealt with it one day at a time.
But when the new government and its campaign against drugs killed thousand of suspected drug users and pushers, it reminded me of that particular case in my childhood and how different people have different takes on each side of the truth. Nabubulok (The
Decaying) is not about the government’s drug campaign and the “extra-judicial killings.” But it is a story that is just as divisive and makes us reflect on how we, as a country, value truth and justice. (E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo. com. For more updates, photos and videos, visit
www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)