Lana proves his auteurism in Anino sa Likod ng Buwan

Interestingly, there were two feature films shown in the recent QCinema International Film Festival (Oct. 22-31 at Trinoma, Gateway and Robinsons cinemas) that made use of the one-shot take during their entire length. One was Sebastian Schipper's "Victoria" (Germany), an incredible stunt of a film that dazzles and devastates at the same time with its tale of youthful lives spiralling out of control. The other was our very own "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan", written and directed by Jun Robles Lana. His previous festival-circuit work, "Barber's Tales", was a consistently assured and impressive piece of women's cinema, helped greatly by telling characterizations all throughout. With his latest work, though, I have mixed feelings. 

In terms of formal aesthetics, "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" is undoubtedly daring. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only other Filipino film to date to utilize an unbroken take for its whole length (the other was Remton Siega Zuasola's "Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria"), something which really requires a very strict and exact discipline, as compared with a film that was shot in multiple sequences. Yet, while daring, the method isn't entirely innovative and original. It's because as we all know, it's something that was already utilized beforehand in international cinema by the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Alexander Sokurov. The film's look, likewise, is remarkable. It's said that it was shot first in digital, then converted to VHS format and then back to digital again. The result is a grainy, near-monochromatic look (in a 4:3 aspect ratio), to somewhat give the impression that the entire film is being lit by the titular moonlight, which is just apt for its hinterland setting, with all the mysteries, tensions and dangers that lurk somewhere. Though to the unaccustomed eye, the look can be properly disorienting (even I myself had occasional trouble adjusting my gaze).

On point of performance, which is done by just three characters (a wife, a husband and a soldier), the director is to be lauded for being able to pool together actors (LJ Reyes, Anthony Falcon and Luis Alandy) who are more than up to the task of getting into the complexities of their characters, all their motivations, psychology and sexuality. Each of the actors gives more than enough brimstone and fire to make the character vivid and engaging, replete with all the long lines that each one has to deliver. And as the three-hander chamber drama progresses, we gradually realize how, just like "Barber's Tales", it's as much a women's film. We initially see how Reyes' character seems to be just properly meek and poised to the two men around her, then right along we see how she's actually emboldened by her passion towards the other, and later on the true degree of her relationship towards the two men is exposed, until it's eventually shown how she has ultimately dictated their - and her - own fate. It's quite a feat to be able to illustrate different layers of one's character throughout the duration of this one-set and one-take piece. And Reyes' brazen portrayal as well as Lana's perceptive screenplay pull it off just about convincingly. 

While it's stated at the start the film's sociopolitical background, "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" isn't really so much about the perennial armed conflict between the Philippine government and the Filipino communist insurgents, as about the brewing tension among the three characters' interaction and the level of affection, harm and deceit that they're capable of providing each other. As with an Ingmar Bergman or an RW Fassbinder chamber drama, the strictly singular setting (in the film's case, instead of a room, it's a hut) becomes more than a mere location as it serves as an omnipresent witness to the peeling off of the varying psycho-emotional layers of the three characters' relationship. With such a specifically-restricted space and a deliberately-measured time, the film is entailed to be "theater-like". And this is where I have few quibbles about the film. 

Given its heavy verbosity and single setting, it somehow requires a suspension of disbelief to fully appreciate its conceit of having a good amount of conflict and revelation happen throughout its unbroken two-hour course. It may be acceptable if it's actually meant for the theater, but it's a different thing altogether if the medium chosen was cinema. Unless there's a deliberate attempt to alienate the audience, as is the case with Lars von Trier's "Dogville", which I don't think Lana's film is wont to do. Another is the heavy tendency of the dialogues to be too literary or formal for good, which prevents us from fully emphatizing with the characters, given their actual social standing of being refugees and fighters in the hinterlands. It's a good thing that there are occasional bursts of earthy or raw verbal exchanges, which make the characters understandably human. Though I think it would be a lot better if it had been that way for the most part. And since on paper, the film is supposed to be more on the psychological dynamics among the three players, it would be even best if more room was given for mood and suggestion, instead of primarily relying on copious verbal exchanges. Even Bergman's characters aren't saying out everything in succession and find time to pause and reflect. Again, this would be fine if the medium was the theatrical stage, but since this is cinema we all know how the attribute of subtlety has been greatly mined by this art-form over the years. 

Still, for all its shortcomings, "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" proves once more how much of an auteur Lana can be. 

Jun Robles Lana's "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan": An auteurist three-hander that almost shines in its own way