[Click here (recommended) for desktop mode.]
Ang Paglalakbay ng mga Bituin sa Gabing Madilim
Language: Cebuano [theme song in Filipino]
English Title: The Journey of Stars into the Dark Night
Year of Release: 2012
Director & screenwriter: Arnel Mardoquio
Producers: Cinema One Originals, Skyweaver Productions, Red Motion Media, HYDEntertainment, Alchemy of Vision and Light Film and TV Productions, Conrad Cejoco
Cast: Fe Ginging Hyde, Glorypearl Dy, Irish Karl Monsanto, Roger Gonzales, Perry Dizon, Christine Lim, Darling Curay, Ethan Smith, Joffrey delos Santos, Dionalon Macalinao, Ruel Dalagan, Leony Diaz, Bagwani Amplayo, Rallaon Monsanto, Annabelle Beldua, Dave Ibao, Victor Fernandez
Led by an armed but wounded man, Amrayda Mundalana and Fatima Gumbajali traverse the forest by wading through a creek, presumably so that their tracks can’t be traced. Their guide however realizes he has been spotted and approaches an elderly man, who stabs him dead. The women avoid getting caught and make their way to the house of ten-year-old Faidal, whom his mother saved from killing by using a zip line. They bring the orphaned boy, still traveling surreptitiously, until they reach Papa Indo, to whom they want to entrust Faidal. Indo refuses but escorts the three of them to find a boat that will take them to Zamboanga. When he asks them why they don’t follow the Bangsa Moro leadership’s order to proceed to Lanao so they can organize womenfolk, they respond that they no longer wish to participate in the armed secessionist struggle. Via radio reports, Indo realizes that Faidal’s parents engaged in kidnapping for ransom while Amrayda and Fatima tell Faidal that the money his parents gave him is difficult to dispose of because it’s in dollars. When they reach a hacienda, they realize that Fatima lied about her mobile phone being unable to receive messages; Amrayda reads instructions from Amgar, Fatima’s boyfriend, telling her to live with him. Amrayda is devastated by Fatima’s betrayal while Faidal raises questions about same-sex desire conflicting with the Quran.
Ang Paglalakbay ng mga Bituin sa Gabing Madilim might seem no different from the usual run of well-intended contemporary film commentaries on Philippine tribal minorities, in the sense that it upholds the primacy of the people and their causes by refusing to spell out these details as the narrative commences. Complete outsiders will be able to pick up the information that the central characters are Tausug tribespeople and that their locale may be neither in Zamboanga nor Sabah (Jolo would be the likeliest possibility) since they discuss the feasibilities of taking boat rides to either destination. The wordless passages define the covert nature of their flight and yield fascinating discoveries, crowned by the mountainside wreckage of a drone whose roar kept them awake the night before. Yet enough information gets proffered in the course of conversations and radio broadcasts, as well as in the reading of clandestine text messages that wind up outing the same-sex relationship that would have been apparent in retrospect for viewers attentive enough to notice this dynamic. The proscribed liaison not only helps explain but also parallels its protagonists’ rebellion against the rebellion, even as the film maintains its larger critique of authoritarian systems, with imperial Manila impinging on our marginal brethren via the constant incursion of army soldiers. The definitive commentary (originally in Filipino) in JPaul S. Manzanilla’s review articulates the film’s remarkable thesis that dwells on the tension between the film’s loverly shots of wilderness and astronomical bodies vis-à-vis its urgent human conflicts: “While the fight against the government to achieve self-determination for the Moros is just, the freedom to love anyone is being suppressed in this instance. This is a problem that should be solved by a war waged in the name of love for country and this is where the democratic goal of any struggle can be tested…. Bapa Indo, the leader of the group, suggested that [the women lovers] need to understand the complications of war, that everyone must make sacrifices. Fatima, on the other hand, kindly explains to Faidal—a child whose biases and decisions in life are just being formed—the pleasures brought by a different kind of love, the stars that are also partners of the moon and the sun” (from “Danas ng Digma, Digmaan ng Pagnanasa [Experience of Conflict, War of Desire],” Young Critics Circle Film Desk, August 19, 2013, posted online).
Back to top
Return to Canon Decampment contents
Go to alphabetized filmmakers list
Á!
ORCID ID 
Ámauteurish! 