FILM REVIEW

Rustic Fields and Peasant Flags in Red Saga

Red Saga captures images and forms that offer a different world outlook and a re-positioning of our beliefs and attitudes in a society torn by an intense war and conflict.

By Dennis Espada              
Bulatlat

Red Saga (14 minutes, released in 2004) captures images and forms that offer a different world outlook and a re-positioning of our beliefs and attitudes in a society torn by an intense war and conflict. Screened last July 14 at the Cinemanila Festival in Greenbelt, Makati City, the short film hopes to deliver a lasting impact to both local and international movie watchers. Display of politics The film begins and ends with a young peasant son doing a flag dance. Since the film is without dialogue, philosophy dwells entirely on the moving pictures brought to the screen.

Dalena (with camera) during the filming of Red Saga

Reading the synopsis, it goes: "a young boy dots golden fields with white flags to stop birds from preying on the season's harvest of palay grains. Another child creates noise by agitating tin cans filled with small stones. An unexpected transformation takes place. A vivid landscape of metaphors on contemporary Philippine politics. A poetic take on the peasant struggle and the protracted people's war in Philippine countrysides."

Gabriela Krista Lluch Dalena, one of the filmmakers of Red Saga, says the film is entirely different from the films and videos they've done before. She is a member of Southern Tagalog Exposure, an alternative multi-media group who brought to the public's eye independent works such as the prize-winning documentary Alingawngaw ng mga Punglo (Echoes of Bullets).

One of the film's highlights was a minute-long scene showing a series of bloodied hands, a horrifying display of how human lives are desecrated in an unimaginable manner.

"The sequence showing juxtapositions of images of bloodied hands against different backgrounds are mostly pseudo-documentations," Dalena, who studied documentary filmmaking and cinematography at the Mowelfund Film Institute, explains. "However, these are interspersed with authentic photographs of the hands of real victims of human rights violations documented by the filmmakers and human rights workers."
 
Theme music includes Utad Arellano's studio re-creation of "Pulang Landas ng Tagumpay" (Red Path to Victory), a revolutionary song popularized by the underground cultural group Artista at Manunulat para sa Sambayanan (ARMAS or Artists and Writers for the People).

"Other tracks composed for the film are weaved from live on-site audio recordings of local peasants and indigenous peoples singing and chanting, and working the fields," Dalena recently told Bulatlat.

Prominent filmmaker Nick DeOcampo, after watching Red Saga, commented that the film is "political."

Natural actors

It is a worthy note to have a cast of actors who had actual experience of the roles they played in the film.

One of them is 60-year old Peter "Tata Pido" Gonzales. A veteran activist and chairman of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) in Quezon province, Tata Pido survived an assassination attempt last May 12 in front of his office in Gumaca town, Quezon province. His body took nine bullets fired by two unidentified assailants. In Red Saga, Tata Pido played the role of a farmer killed in a village massacre.

Siblings Mary Anne and Bochokoy De Los Santos lost their father Nicanor De Los Santos, a Dumagat tribe leader in Rizal province, who was shot to death last Dec. 7, 2000. The killing was believed to be perpetrated by elements of Task Force Panther of the Philippine Army's 2nd Infantry Division. Mary Anne was 12 years old while Bochokoy was merely seven during the film production.

The young peasant son who becomes an armed guerrilla was played by Mario, a church worker and activist. The first time I saw his waltzing with the flag was in June 2000 during a cultural skit to commemorate the "bogus" Independence Day held on the streets of Santa Cruz, Laguna. He used to be a member of Sinagbayan-Laguna, a local cultural group.

Work in progress

Red Saga was filmed on a staggered basis. Most scenes were shot in the rustic countryside of Quezon and Mindoro.

Dalena recalled incidents where they will have to stop filming and pack up immediately due to military operations in the area. This explains why some scenes were apparently missed. Nevertheless, she hopes to put some final touches to it, like adding more scenes.

Produced by the Mowelfund Film Institute and the Philippine Information Agency, the film is a collective project by filmmakers, namely: Dalena, Claude Santos, Bryan Quesada, Bobby Macabenta, King Catoy, Jomel Lawas, Renato Mabilin, Arvin Viola, Noralee Carandang, Lino Matalang, Paolo Pangan, Bogsi Panaligan and Vivian Limpin.

The title was, in fact, appropriated with permission from an essay with the same title by multi-awarded poet Maningning Miclat, who wrote about the diary of a guerrilla fighter that was entrusted to her. The essay appeared in the publication In Transit, a Philippine art journal.

Miclat, who passed away in 2000 at the tender age of 28, was a close friend of Dalena.

"The diary has nothing to do with the film. I just liked the title," Dalena added. Bulatlat 

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