DRAMA; 1hr 58min (Filipino with subtitles)
STARRING: Ruby Ruiz, Emmanuel Santos, B.J. Forez
Guiding light: Ruiz
Classically stately though it is, the 400-year-old Catholic convent tucked into the mountains on the Philippines island of Luzon isn’t in the greatest shape, plagued by power outages and leaks galore. The nuns who live there take such hassles in their capable stride, sustained by the certainty of their belief.
For the perennially serene Sister Yolanda (Ruiz), the convent is a spiritual refuge that has cradled her for decades. But the placid grace of her life of service cracks apart when, after a young man (Forez as Angelo) is killed in a highway construction accident, it becomes apparent that in the interests of commerce, his death is to be under rug swept by the powers-that-be.
Having blessed Angelo as he lay dying alone in hospital, Sister Yolanda feels a personal connection to him. And when his father (Santos) confides that not only did the local church deny Angelo a burial service, but the construction company funded an alternative ceremony while refusing to respond to his questions about his son’s death, the Sister is inevitably suspicious.
Why did the doctor treating Angelo stop operating on him? Could his life have been saved, and if so, why wasn’t it? Make no mistake: the contemplative austerity of Australian-Filipino writer-director James J. Robinson’s feature debut is no reflection of the bottom-line issues that concern it — not just literally those of life and death, but of the political forces that randomly contrive to shape them.
