'Flor Contemplacion Story' flawed but still respectable

'Flor Contemplacion Story' flawed but still respectable

By Joko E.H. Anwar

The Flor Contemplacion Story (**1/2 out of ****);
Drama, 120 minutes; Starring Nora Aunor, Ian De Leon, Julio Diaz,
Vina Moralez, Gloria Sevilla; Directed by Joel Lamangan;
A Viva Films Presentation; In Tagalog and English with
Indonesian subtitles

JAKARTA (JP): The tragic story of a Filipino domestic worker
who may have been wrongly hanged for murder in Singapore in 1995
opens this week in the capital's theaters.

Even though it is not a great film, its topic hits home in
Indonesia as it focuses on the issue of female domestic workers,
usually poor and from poor developing countries, who are sent to
wealthy nations. Only last year a pregnant Indonesian woman faced
a death sentence while working as a domestic helper in the United
Arab Emirates.

The film opens with a TV news spot about the death sentence
given to Flor Contemplacion as her family watches in the
Philippines.

We are quickly introduced to the main problem at the heart of
Contemplacion's troubles: the family is dirt poor, with her
husband working as a public transportation driver to support his
four kids.

It then cuts to a series of flashbacks when Contemplacion
decided to work as a domestic helper in Singapore.

Despite her relatives' objections, she considered it the only
way to help her family escape their problems.

The film tries to skirt the inevitable melodrama by not
telling us in explicit detail how the family deals with the
poverty. Instead, it quickly introduces us to a subplot -- the
husband is having an affair with another woman while
Contemplacion is away.

When Contemplacion goes home to visit her family, she finds
out about the affair and warns both her husband and the other
woman to split up. The segment adds nothing to the film, except
for telling us that the husband is a one-dimensional loser but
the mistress has a kind heart.

It takes quite a time before we get to the real issue of what
happens in Singapore. Told through the point of view of several
witnesses who insist that Contemplacion is innocent of the murder
of another Filipino worker and her six-year-old Singaporean
charge, the film pulls no punches in declaring its belief that
Contemplacion was treated unjustly.

Unfortunately, it is not well-structured and almost ends up
wandering nowhere but for Nora Aunor's powerful performance in
the title role.

She is earnest and utterly believable as a helpless woman with
a broken dream. The actress seems to be carrying the whole movie
on her own; the performances of the other players are not
disappointing, but they lack a suitable script to develop their
characters.

It is at its best in the closing moments when it deals with
Contemplacion's last days on death row. Its raw look, perhaps
unintentional, adds to its haunting quality, but the torture
session allegedly conducted by Singaporean authorities may be too
disturbing for some viewers.

It seems the film was rushed into production in 1995 so the
filmmaker could shoot actual footage of mourning crowds
throughout Contemplacion's homeland following the execution. The
scenes work in adding to the realistic feel and give the movie a
documentary look.

Yet although they were brave enough in pointing the finger at
the authorities in Singapore and the Philippines (Contemplacion's
execution soured relations between the two countries), the
producers should have gone further in dealing with the plight of
migrant workers.

Despite its shortcomings, the film, which was the winner at
the 1996 Cairo Film Festival, respectably succeeds in translating
a tragedy that shook and united the nation to the screen.

It is far superior to any recent Indonesian movie on real life
themes, such as Dukun A.S. (Misteri Kebun Tebu, the story of a
shaman serial killer which was only disturbing for its complete
ineptitude!

The showing of The Flor Contemplacion Story here should be
enough for local filmmakers to realize that there is an audience
for tales about events that people can identify, or at least
empathize, with. They would be more valuable than, say, the crop
of hipper than hip, implausible entries, such as an action film
about the hunt for a precious diamond hidden at the top of the
National Monument.

While many people complained about the censorship stranglehold
on the film industry during the New Order era, times have changed
and we can now take advantage of our freedom of speech. But until
the day when factual, well-produced movies are made about actual
events in Indonesia, such as the death of students during the
Semanggi tragedy, we must be content with watching this
interesting, if flawed, vehicle from our Asian neighbor.