By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Christian Linahan
Starring: Iwa Moto | Mercedes Cabral | Nicholas Varela | Will Devaughn
Country: philippines
Year: 2013
Running time: 110
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2529204/combined
Kyle says: “The international premiere of ABERYA (meaning ‘malfunction’ in Tagalog) was one of five offerings of the New York Asian Film Festival in a series labeled ‘Manila Chronicles: The New Filipino Cinema.’ It is more interesting for its aims than its accomplishments, but is worth seeing for its four overlapping tales of yearnings by Filipino young people to find a place in the cosmos. It is set in Cebu, Queen City of the South in the Philippines, and marks the directorial debut of Christian Linaban, whose next feature I look forward to. First up is the handsome champion boxer named Lourd, who narcissistically enjoys his own physical perfection as he chronicles for us how he pursues a different girl each evening. On Saturday he proposes to Eden, who is the subject of the fourth section, but calls off the wedding on Sunday when he meets Angel, who is the second narrator and a former nun turned prostitute. She meets and has a drug-induced episode of delirium with Mike, subject of the third sequence, a stammering drug dealing politician’s son not fluent in Tagalog, whose products are all referentially named for BACK TO THE FUTURE (Delorean, McFly), who is looking forward to travel through time and rebirth in fire. Eden is a social climbing wannabe and reluctant porn star lying in wait for the right man, who is definitely not Lourd. His lengthy self-indulgent conversation with the camera will likely try the patience of most viewers and fail to lure them back into the story, which is also
irritating in its discussion of purification through religious pursuit and close-ups of religious artifacts. And time travel through massive doses of drugs is a little too easy. One perks up briefly for the line: ‘When freedom is terrifying, freedom fighters are terrorists.’ Also for the car crash at the end, which serves as a metaphor for the entire film. If only this film came anywhere close to the expectations engendered by the NYAFF program book: ‘ABERYA is a bootleg green screen head trip into the depths of a post-colonial hangover, a primal ritual song of people starved for love and salvation. It’s about a city just out of the jungle, still teetering on the high-wire between religious piety and primal savagery.’ 2 cats
“Seen Monday, July 1, 2013, New York Asian Film Festival at the Walter Reade Theater, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York.”