Subjugation through Adoration: Bona (1980) Reviewed — Cartellino (2024)

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By the end of the film, Bona is not a self-effacing martyr fan anymore. She has learned to outgrow being a pushover and inevitably resorts to doing something directly the opposite of what her name means (Bona is an Italian name, meaning “good”). The film is open-ended, but there is a high probability that Gardo suffered intense pain and died drenched in scalding water from Bona’s hands. Brocka punctuates Bona’s struggle in her act of revenge, and even then narrow and limited, as it only offers temporary release from her self-imposed servility. Though Bona eventually came to her senses and gained her agency, her actions were still dictated by the patriarchal structures around her. She wouldn’t have had realized how wrong her choices were had her brother (Spanky Manikan) not disowned her during their father’s wake. She wouldn’t even have realized that she was being severely taken advantage of had her revered idol Gardo not casually kicked her out of the shanty when she had just been disowned by her family and had nowhere else to go.

Nora Aunor’s portrayal of Bona left an imprint because her character reminds us of the systematic nature of women’s subordination deeply embedded in a patriarchal society such as ours. Women from the time they were born were generally taught to anchor their survival and identity on men. They will only assert their power and mobilize their resources to survive once the patriarchal figures they’ve relied on fail or refuse to bequeath such resources. The male-supported female chastity norm was also demonstrated by Bona’s father (Venchito Galvez), who almost had beaten her to death upon knowing she spent the night away from home. Another instance was when Bona’s father discovered her living under one roof with Gardo and readily stormed into Gardo’s room, forcing the latter to a shotgun marriage to save his daughter’s face. Both instances show that women in those times were treated as nothing more than commodities, and their “purity” their utmost selling value.

Brocka’s affinity with and concentration in representing the marginalized in Bona and in many of his films reflects his stance in film as a medium of social change. This radical notion of the film embraced by Brocka and his sympathies with the proletariat seem in concert with Marxist ideology where there is a proactive effort to show collective reality while carving a simultaneous attempt to provide ways to improve such realities. Bona as a film traces how the so-called “opium” of the masses interchanges from religion to celebrities. The mediated celebrity that people consume becomes just another one of the countless instruments of the oppressive bourgeoisie system to keep the proletariats entertained and unquestioning. Celebrities, through aiding in the development of alienation and distraction, unknowingly facilitate the perpetuation of the capitalist system, which is at the heart of Brocka’s critique.

Though the film Bona was shown locally and even exhibited at the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight of the 1981 Cannes International Film Festival, it first had to pass through heavy censorship from the Marcos government because of its unsavory portrayal of Filipino society where images of poverty and the damaged condition of slum life abounded in almost all the scenes. The pronounced portrayal of raw reality as characterized by location shooting in Quiapo, the use of the day-to-day reality of ordinary people and workers, the use of nonprofessional actors (which, in this case, are the people as themselves), and the use of documentary visual style, among others, point to the influence of Italian neo-realist cinema in Lino Brocka’s Bona. Adopting the neorealist tradition in cinema seems to be the prevailing trend, especially in periods of flux or national crisis. In Brocka’s context, it was the imposition of martial law.

In the present time, where Philippine society is plagued with a plethora of social and political ills, like covid, leadership incompetence, and enormous budget embezzlement committed by corrupt government officials, it is not surprising to encounter a film analogous with the theme and structure of Bona. In fact, we should expect films that are more representative of the Philippines’ current social and cultural realities. If we really endeavor to become a little more intentional in our resolve to break away from exploitation and class divide, we should recognize our own insanity and our own dysfunction in watching movies that make us all the more a pawn in a capitalist’s chess game.

Raissa is a yoga practitioner who loves art, dogs, and doughnuts.

Subjugation through Adoration: Bona (1980) Reviewed — Cartellino (2024)
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