Films

Film info

Bayan Ko: My Own Country

dates & times tickets

Info

Year:

1985

Original Title:

Bayan Ko: My Own Country

País:

Director:

Lino Brocka

Color:

Color

Format:

35 mm

Duration:

108 min

Cast:

Phillip Salvador, Gino Alajar, Paquito Diaz, Claudia Zobel

Production:

GUIÓN: José F. Lacaba
FOTOGRAFÍA: Conrado Baltazar
EDICIÓN: George Jarlego, Hero Reyes, Robert Yugeco
PRODUCCIÓN: Malaya Films/Stephan Films

Synopsis

Lino Brocka, who died in a car accident in 1991, is considered the most important Filipino filmmaker. Maybe we could talk about Brocka’s main creed (of cinema as starting point, at gusts a second, for denunciation, for melodrama, for intelligence) or maybe we could present his Bayan Ko as one of the strongest left-hand punches Ferdinando Marcos’ dictatorship had ever received. Turning the story of a desperate guy who robs in order to support his family into the mirror of a period in time, and, at the same time, translating into the story the fury caused by the then-recent murder of journalist Benigno Aquino, Brocka’s powerful, compromising film brought worldwide attention towards the poor and the marginalized in his country, although, to accomplish that, the director had to smuggle it all the way to Cannes and, as a consequence, lost temporarily his Filipino citizenship. Bayan Ko can be seen as part of a double feature with the latest “filmless film” by Khavn de la Cruz (one of Brocka’s most talented heirs), Manila in the Fangs of Darkness, which is presented in the Panorama section.