Life, or something like it, onscreen, part 2

While I was watching Armando Lao's "Dukit" (which literally translates in English as "woodcarving"), it felt like that I had a dream that came true. That is, it felt like that I was watching the film at the Cannes International Film Festival, this unassuming gem radiating with humanity, with all of its warmth, frailty and compassion, which is most of the time the kind of film that wins big in the prestigious festival ("La Dolce Vita", "Kagemusha", "Paris, Texas", "Eternity and a Day", "Elephant", "The Child", "The Tree of Life" and just recently, "Blue is the Warmest Color"). During the film's brief introduction before its screening at the UP Film Institute, the director mentioned that he was hoping that with the film, we would "learn a little not just about the Kapampangans, but a little about life, too." He stands to be corrected. While we were watching "Dukit", we learned a lot about life. Right before our eyes inside the darkened theater, a masterpiece was unfolding.

Juggling among three timelines (the '60s, the '80s and the present) and among three generations of the same character (Waldo as a little child, a young man and a senior, portrayed respectively by Bambalino Lacap, Bor Ocampo and Wilfredo Tayug), the film is a sublime yet moving testament to the power of forgiveness and the enduring ties that bind parents and children, no matter how scarred it may become by anger, deception and betrayal. The screenplay by Lao and Honie Alipio is a faultless exercise in restraint and gracefulness, utilizing symbolisms and silences that are more powerful than what theatrics and words can say. The film's spiritual and religious motifs are overpowering without being overbearing. In fact, they nearly evoke the spirituality of an Andrei Tarkovsky masterpiece. The transcendence just gets into the core of our being. Praise goes as well to Diego Marx Robles' editing. Initially, his juggled timeframe may feel disorienting, but just like in an Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu film, such method becomes an effective means of putting layer upon layer of a rich tapestry of emotions geared towards a very fulfilling catharsis by the end. Once you get the grip of its rhythm, you are transported through a truly rewarding cadence.

As we can see here, under the director's masterful stroke, the film becomes a unified achievement - the naturalistic and nuanced portrayals, the screenplay, the editing, the production design, the music. The major recognitions that it received from the MMFF New Wave Awards ceremony last December were definitely no fluke.

"Dukit" can be a number of things. For one, on the basis of the title alone, it is a loving tribute to the unheralded art and craft of woodcarving, in all of its complexities and subtleties. It is simply awe-inspiring to think how, under the skillful and dedicated hands of the woodcarver, a dull piece of wood can transform into a majestic and life-like religious icon. On another, it is a powerful narrative involving fathers and sons, a familial relationship not that often explored in cinema, at least in a richly evocative manner. On another still, it is a spiritual hymn, displaying unwavering belief in faith and prayer, in the power of the intangible to heal and reconcile, to work miracles.

"Dukit" is simply a miracle of a film.

Transcendence, spirituality and humanity in ''Dukit''