Film Critique | Unveiling the Prism Within

WRITTEN BY MDPN. JAN CHRISTIAN CATILO | FILM STILLS FROM BLACK RAINBOW BY ZIG DULAY

“Apo Namalyari, help me with my studies”, the wishful cries of Itan as he shouted on a cliff echoing the mountainous range of Zambales. He yearned to become a Lawyer someday to protect his land, particularly to understand the documents that gave way for the mining operations that forced them to give up their ancestral land. Itan’s sister, Haya, contrasted his brother’s dream as she wanted to be a goddess herself. They may have different visions, different ambitions but it all runs down to helping their tribe for getting back what rightfully belongs to them.

Black Rainbow– Zig Dulay’s latest work, currently screening at the Sine Halaga Film Festival touches the heart of viewers as the film portrayed an Aeta Boy, Itan who aspired to finish his studies. Reality hits hard for the boy as it kept him distant from the person whom he aspires to be.

Itan needs to accompany his father in planting crops as his family is also saving up for the delivery of his pregnant mother.

He is not spared from the harsh reality to halt his studies as his father deemed that learning how to read and write is already enough.

Zig Dulay and his team, especially the Director of Photography, Mark Joseph Cosico, created a very aesthetic cinematography with very beautiful color grading to showcase the beauty of the Mountains of Zambales.

The film depicted big cultural and political issues but expressed them in an innocent and child-friendly manner. Highlighting the inequalities experienced by the Aeta people along with their way of life that is inexcusably changing due to dramatic circumstances they are facing. It also portrayed the values of family, education, and the burning passion of youth that is hard to extinguish and sometimes overlaps with the mindset of grown-ups. The two juvenile actors, Ron King as Itan and Shella Mae Romualdo as Haya, made great performances that exhibited a great and harmonized chemistry of the love-hate relationship of brothers and sisters besides the fact that they are actual Aeta’s themselves.

There is a qualm of inconsistency over the representation of other characters like Ma’am Tess and Uncle Chieftain as it is understandable that they are non-professional actors and actresses but still made a good personification of the characters they embody. I love the metaphor of the “black rainbow” that Haya personally explained. The rainbow she described is the black soothe emitted by the mining operation and burning of trees to excavate mineral resources of the mountainous lands where they are the true owners.

Black rainbow depicts the situation of the silent minority that doesn’t get that much exposure from the streamlined media. Unleashing the unspoken stories like the ones of a hopeful child reaching for the stars despite the difficulties within himself, history of his lineage, struggles of his family, and the reality of facing these circumstances at a young age. With an intention to highlight education, featuring a learner that despite the limitations of familial capability, still finds a way to pursue his learning.

It also encompasses the essence of sibling bonds to support each other, hand in hand despite the bickering and small catfights. Truly, your own blood won’t forsake you and will understand what your heart resonates with. They will help you call for a higher power to magnify those pleas and manifest thy dreams.

The conjecture of the film is an overall impressive depiction and narrative of the Aeta People. A story of struggle, hardships, personal crisis, bonds, and hope. An art both contextually and cinematically as it is a film that will make you delve into the fun and childlike perspective of facing life’s struggles. An oxymoron for life that despite the dark bleak downpour of a hard indigenous life, it captivates and rendered a genius depiction in a youthful and colorful sensibility of those who dream and aspire to give justice to preserve their way of a traditional and happy life.