Moonlight Over Baler: A tale of love lost and found inspired by a true story
WHILE IT was not chosen to be an entry at the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) last December, Gil M. Portes’s Moonlight Over Baler will still get a shot at a nationwide release as the film is slated for a pre-Valentine showing starting Feb. 8.
Set in the town of Baler, Aurora in 1986, the movie is about a retired school teacher named Fidela (played by Elizabeth Oropesa) who meets a Japanese photojournalist Kenji ( Vin Abrenica) who happens to resemble Fidela’s lost love, Nestor (also played by Mr. Abrenica), a soldier she was supposed to marry in the 1940s but who never returned.
Because of the similarity between the foreigner and her former lover, Fidela decides to help Kenji win the heart of the town beauty, Rory (played by Ellen Adarna).
Also in the cast are Sophie Albert, Daria Ramirez, Alvin Fortuna, Kate Alejandrino, Abel Estanislao, Angie Ferro, Benjie Felipe, and Jess Evardone.
“This film is a tribute to my aunt,” said Mr. Portes during a press conference on Jan. 31 at the Limbaga 77 restaurant in Quezon City.
The director said the story was “partly inspired by true events” as his aunt, who was a teacher, lost her fiancé during World War II — he was with the United States Army Forces in the Far East and headed off to fight the Japanese and never returned.
“She waited and waited [for him]... she was a hopeless romantic,” said Mr. Portes. Many years later, his aunt said that she met a drug salesman who looked so much like her fiancé that she struck up a friendship with him.
The story of Mr. Portes’s aunt was turned into a script by Enrique Ramos which eventually won third place in the Dulaan Pampelikula category at the 2009 Palanca Awards.
Moonlight Over Baler was initially considered as an entry to the MMFF. Mr. Portes said that the selection committee called him twice to screen the film and both times he believed that the film was well received — so when the final list of entries for the festival was released and his film wasn’t included, he admitted to feeling disappointed.
“Our film is not edgy... it’s a feelgood film,” Mr. Portes said, giving a possible reason why the film wasn’t selected for the yearly festival which drew some criticism for its surprising turn to independent rather than mainstream films in its latest iteration.
Mr. Abrenica told the press said that the entire cast was disappointed at the film’s non- inclusion in the MMFF because they did their best.
But beyond the disappointment, the filmmaker is optimistic about how the film will be received in general release as “there’s no film like this anymore.”
Moonlight Over Baler will be showing in cinemas nationwide starting Feb. 8. —