Cinemalaya entry tackles ‘real kind of love
People are used to watching love stories with happy endings. In the Cinemalaya full-length film entry “Dagsin,” however, moviegoers will see “real kind of love” with its share of struggles and pain.
“What we see sometimes when people write stories for films, it’s fictionalized talaga. What we wanted to show here is ’yung katotohanan.
Hindi lang ’yung boy meets girl, they fall in love, then live happily ever after lang. We also show what comes after that,” said supervising producer Anne Magadia. Her husband Atom Magadia directed the film, which they said somehow mirrors their experiences as a couple of 16 years.
“What makes you love each other is not the whole fanfare of the related. “It wasn’t what kept us together all this time (kundi) ’yung talagang real struggle. Real love is painful. Real love makes you do things you never imagined possible.”
The story is told in reverse. According to a release, the movie is “an epic journey that sprang from a quiet but powerful scene, it is of an old man in a room surrounded by memorabilia of a life well-lived, and yet wanting to end his life, because he felt that he had lost every purpose and reason to go on.”
After surviving World War II, the Death March and several attempts on his life, Justino (played by Tommy Abuel) had become an atheist. But after his wife’s demise, a part of him now yearns to believe in life beyond death just to be united with her again. Searching for parts of her wife he can still hold on to, Justino goes through her personal things. Mercy (Lotlot de Leon), his adopted daughter, finds a box-full of Corazon’s diaries (Marita Zobel), which he devours for information into their past.
Also in the cast are Benjamin Alves, Janine Gutierrez, Sue Prado, Alex Diaz, Yoshihiko Hara, Rolando Inocencio and Arpee Bautista.
Suffice it to say “Dagsin,” which is said to be the Tagalog word for “gravity,” is an emotional kind of film.
“Sa ending malalaman why it’s titled that way,” Atom hinted.
First timers
Atom graduated with a degree in business from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. He worked in the finance and business sector for many years before eventually deciding to pursue his passion for films.
Anne, on the other hand, has always been passionate about writing.
“What we tried to do with ‘Dagsin’ is bring together what we learned abroad and adopt it,” Anne noted. But why Cinemalaya, we asked.
“We thought Cinemalaya is a good venue to start. Kasi, ang pag-gawa ng film madaming segments iyan, pre-production, postproduction, marketing.
Madugo iyon. So ayaw muna naming isipan iyan kasi ang Cinemelaya is already the right venue for us,” Atom shared.
They initially submitted two entries but were advised to pursue “Dagsin” because of its complexity.
Being new filmmakers, Atom and Anne admitted having gone through some challenges making “Dagsin.”
“Nahirapan kami kasi independent, walang may kakilala sa iyo. As a producer, hindi mo alam, who do you trust, wala kang kaibigan. Kami kumuha ng sarili naming artista. Kami nag-negotiate. Napaka-hands on naming dalawa,” Anne said.
“Parang purging na din sa amin ang ‘Dagsin,’ lahat na na-experience namin as couple nandito. The reason it is so mabigat is we experienced it,” she added.
In the production notes, Atom said although the movie can be classified in a number of ways, for him, it is “noir.”
“‘Dagsin’ is a crime, suspense drama of sorts, where the perpetrator, the victim and the executioner are one and the same person,” he said. “A respected and venerated Judge during Martial Law who compromised his integrity in exchange for the safety of his wife, Justino’s conscience now haunts him and insists on passing judgment on his past sins.”
The Cinemalaya Film Festival will be held at the CCP and select theaters from Aug. 5 to 14.