By putting a premium on thematic pertinence over pomp, formula and pageantry, the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival has continually asserted its place as the country’s preeminent indie showcase since 2005. It explores stories that are deemed too risky for mainstream audiences and espouses perspectives that champion the weak, oppressed and marginalized.  

These indies operate on a lower budget, yet attract the stellar likes of Nora Aunor (2014’s “Hustisya,” 2016’s “Tuos”), Vilma Santos (2013’s “Ekstra”), Sharon Cuneta (2017’s “Ang Pamilyang Hindi Lumuluha”), Judy Ann Santos (2012’s “Mga Mumunting Lihim,” 2016’s “Kusina”), Coco Martin (2012’s “Sta. Niña”), and Marian Rivera (last year’s “Balota”), boosting their credibility and larger-than-life appeal beyond the mainstream market.

For its 21st season, not a single superstar is attached to the festival’s 10 official entries in the full-length category, but the full-capacity screenings that we attended prove there’s more to moviegoing than stargazing. This despite the fact that a regular Cinemalaya ticket (at ₱350 each, with a discount for students) is more expensive than the usual price of admission (₱280) for a Filipino movie showing at the cineplexes these days.

With CCP theaters closed, film buffs can watch the entries until Oct. 12 at the Shangri-La Plaza (in Mandaluyong), Gateway Mall 2, Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Circuit, UP Town Center and Market! Market! (Go to www.cinemalaya.org/schedules-3 for the full schedule.) 

We hope the festival can stretch its legs beyond the confines of these predominantly progressive urban enclaves. After all, Cinemalaya’s gutsy productions should be appreciated by more and more film aficionados all over the country. 

On our must-see list are Sari Dalena’s “Cinemartyrs,” Renei Dimla’s “Republika ng Pipolipinas,” and Dustin Celestino’s “Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan”—three films that alternately play out as meditations on Pinoy identity, the repercussions of generational trauma, and the beleaguered Everyman’s quixotic quest for justice and accountability.

‘Cinemartyrs’

“Cinemartyrs,” about a young filmmaker, Shirin Dalisay (Nour Hooshmand), who takes her crew to Jolo to shoot a massacre scene inspired by a bloody Tausog wedding in 1906, should be a shoo-in for Best Picture. With Sari (“Dahling Nick”) at the helm, the movie snugly incorporates genre filmmaking into a tantalizing mix of sociopolitical rumination, cinematic lore, feminism and magic realism. 

The storytelling approach may not be every viewer’s cup of tea, but Sari grounds her delectable production with a unifying perspective that elevates the story beyond its cautionary revelations and suspense-thriller elements. It features cameos from screen auteurs Kidlat Tahimik and Lav Diaz (as a Christ-like figure rallying behind doomed katipuneros) and the lovely Raquel Villavicencio playing—hold your breath—four strong women interacting with one another! 

‘Republika ng Pipolipinas’

Our personal favorite is “Republika ng Pipolipinas,” a spot-on mockumentary about widow Cora Vitug (Geraldine Villamil, in a crackerjack portrayal worthy of the festival’s coveted Best Actress plum) who renounces her Filipino citizenship after enduring harassment for refusing to sell her land to local authorities wanting to turn her farm into a dumpsite for Korean trash. 

Following incessant threats of demolition, Cora stubbornly decides to build a micronation surrounding her property in which she declares herself president, with the livestock she’s raising as its citizens. 

Cora’s desperate act strikes a chord with other Filipinos who are also getting increasingly impatient about the government’s apathy and inability to address their urgent concerns. No words ring truer and more heartbreaking than when Cora wistfully muses, “While other countries send their garbage to us, we send our loved ones to serve them.”

The merry villagers helping Cora navigate her dire situation include her fence-sitting, tocino-peddling neighbor Juliet (Kakki Teodoro) and her vigilant daughter Ekay (Natalie Maligalig), with the winsome Alessandra de Rossi gamely playing her principled, lovely and kookie self. You can’t get any more meta than that.

Geraldine pulls off the high-wire act of shuttling between her character’s dramatic and comedic complexity and makes the difficult task look easy. The film’s over-all tone may be satirical and broadly comedic, but we left the cinema with a heavy heart—and with tears in our eyes.

‘Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan’

Another soul-stirring case of art imitating life is the hard-hitting and whip-smart existential drama “Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan,” Celestino’s polemic against corruption that astutely mirrors Leni Robredo’s heartbreaking defeat in the 2022 presidential election. In this parallel world, losing candidate Eleanor Robles (Frances Makil-Ignacio) calmly accepts defeat while her dashing but cocky opponent (Andoy Ranay) celebrates his runaway victory at the polls. 

This sobering and stifling atmosphere serves as the backdrop that informs the dramatic interplay between two couples: On one side, there’s losing political strategist Kiko (Jojit Lorenzo) and his wife, history professor Bea (Dolly de Leon), daughter of a desaparecido; then there’s Robles’ disillusioned speechwriter David (Zanjoe Marudo) and his new girlfriend, election lawyer Mela (Mylene Dizon, razor-sharp and award-worthy as always), on the other. Bea says she has lost interest in teaching because, as she notes, “Students these days would rather forget the past. So what’s the point?”

These relationships quickly unravel after it is revealed that Mela’s father is General Leonardo Lanuza (Nanding Josef, scary and vulnerable in equal measure), the dementia-stricken former top executioner of the Filipino dictator responsible for the death and disappearance of many political prisoners, including Bea’s father, during the dark days of martial law. Tension reaches fever-pitch when Kiko and Bea get invited to the wedding of David and Mela. But, as his online bashers ask: Is David guilty by association? 

The film benefits from the impact generated by Cinemalaya 21’s best ensemble, which also includes the continually evolving Anna Luna as Mela’s younger sister.

“Hydra” is a better-realized companion piece to 2023’s “Ang Duyan ng Magiting” devoid of the latter’s occasionally off-putting and excessive theatricality. But while it is as relevant as it is powerful, it’s hard to shake off the irony that, even as “Hydra” proselytizes about abuse and accountability, a coproducer of the film (Nathan Studios, owned by the Ataydes) is enmeshed in the current real-life corruption scandal that most of its characters eloquently rail against in their emotionally charged confrontation scenes.

It’s gratifying to note that the two other significant ensembles in the lineup come from LGBTQ-themed films that move the queer discourse front and center: Kevin Alambra’s “Warla,” starring the fabulous foursome of KaladKaren aka Jervi Wrightson, Lance Reblando, Serena Magiliw and Valeria Ortega, and Nigel Santos’ “Open Endings,” featuring the gorgeous quartet of Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Janella Salvador, Klea Pineda and Leanne Mamonong.

‘Open Endings’

In Santos’ unapologetically rousing film, the comfortable routine of lesbian exes-turned-best friends—composed of Hannah (Jasmine), Charlie (Janella), Mihan (Klea) and Kit (Leanne)—is upended when Hannah announces her shocking decision to marry the new guy in town, Matteo (Migs Almendras). Can the girls’ friendship survive when their unmanaged expectations and other personal issues start bubbling to the surface? Take a wild guess.

‘Warla’

The stakes are even higher in “Warla.” Alambra’s plausibly concocted thriller is an intricately spun cinematic yarn that tracks the dangerous course 19-year-old Kitkat (Lance) takes after Joice (the compelling KaladKaren), the leader of a kidnap-for-ransom gang of transwomen, takes the naïve stowaway under her wing. 

But while Kitkat appreciates her self-appointed guardian’s doting presence and support, it’s the criminal company Joice keeps that puts the beleaguered teenager on tenterhooks. Is there a happy-ever-after beyond the transphobic world Kitkat, Joice, Luningning (Valeria) and Barbie Ann (Serema) live in?

‘Bloom Where You are Planted’

Noni Abao’s gut-punching documentary illustrates the bleak repercussions and dangerous risks activists take to stand up for farmers’ rights and push back against militarization and red-tagging in Cagayan Valley. 

Agnes Mesina, Amanda Lacaba Echanis and Randy Malayao’s respective fights may be long, lonely and arduous, but their sacrifice isn’t lost on the people whose lives (and livelihood) they protect.

‘Raging’   

Don’t be put off by its seemingly meandering pace. Ryan Machado’s film eschews the irresistible lure of high-strung melodrama for something more thoughtful. There’s deliberate reason behind the slow and bleak rhythms of its narrative progression as it charts 19-year-old protagonist Eli Miniano’s (Elijah Canlas, with innate gravitas on full display) reckoning with sexual abuse one month after he was raped by his trusted peer Arjo (Ron Angeles). 

Following the cops’ refusal to help him pursue the case, the teenager’s quest for justice is further stifled by an unsympathetic community that chooses to sweep the sexual indiscretions of its toxic men under the rug. But when Eli finally musters enough courage to express his pent-up frustrations, all his walls come crashing down. It’s a compelling pay-off worthy of its moody setup. 

‘Paglilitis’

Cheska Marfori’s production treats sexual abuse with more agency but handles its emotionally charged sequences with less vulnerability and subtlety. In “Paglilitis,” Jonalyn Samuel (pretty Rissey Reyes-Robinson) goes through the wringer after accepting the help of lawyer Sylvia Ardenia to sue her sexually abusive former boss, Eduardo Guzman (the terrifying Leo Martinez). 

But Jonalyn’s situation goes from bad to worse when the milk mogul succumbs to his illness, making her clout-chasing lawyer lose interest in the case. Is it time for Jona to throw in the towel and charge everything to experience?

‘Child No. 82: Son of Boy Kana’

“Pinoy Big Brother” alumnus JM Ibarra has found the right material to put his earnestness and strong screen presence to good use. He makes his auspicious big-screen debut in Tim Rone Villanueva’s insightful fantasy film as Max, who attends the wake of action superstar Boy Kana (Vhong Navarro) to prove that he’s one of the actor’s many illegitimate children. 

While its storytelling inventiveness and themes on identity and fanaticism are issues viewers can instantly relate to, it’s the movie’s dodgy visual elements that occasionally weigh it down. In fact, in the supposedly sweeping opening scene intended to send up Fernando Poe Jr.’s swash-buckling romp in a desert for “Ang Panday,” we overheard a viewer behind us tell his seatmate, “This looks too shoddy, like a scene from a pirated DVD!” Ouch.

‘Padamlagan’

Like JM, Ely Buendia also appears in his first lead role in a Cinemalaya vehicle—but with less success. Jenn Romano’s thematically potent but uneven “Padamlagan” casts the singer-songwriter as a father who races against time to search for his missing son after the collapse of Colgante Bridge in Naga during the Peñafrancia fluvial procession in 1972.

Almost 140 revelers perished in that tragedy, but their family members’ collective grief was soon overshadowed by the declaration of martial law five days later—a disquieting turn of events that could have heightened the film’s sterile dramatic scenes. 

Of course, it’s a thrill to see the elusive Eraserheads frontman stretch his artistic wings, but with lengthy monotonous moments dulling the initial excitement down, the novelty of it all quickly overstays its welcome. Our verdict: It’s a missed opportunity for the elusive OPM icon.

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