Short movie tackles love lost and love found, PHL’s rich music heritage

Huling Tawad (The Last Haggle) is a story of love lost and a love again found...

MANILA, Philippines (14 February 2012)–Give him a camera and a good story, perhaps an inspiration, and he would have a very good film.

Altair Macatiag, a newbie in the world of short films had made this author absolutely speechless as he captured in a digital movie camera, and amazingly, only for three minutes (180 whole seconds) a story of love betrayed, love lost, and a love once against found.

Shot entirely in Manila, in the old Sta. Mesa area in particular, the collaboration between him and Ms Divina Nova Joy de la Cruz, a former editor of one of the oldest university newsweekly in the country, The Philippine Collegian, Huling Tawad is an old story captured in a new medium, but never failed to touch one’s heart.

Synopsis

It is a story of a man, portrayed by multi-awarded poet and also a filmmaker, Roberto “Abet” Umil and a woman, portrayed by progressive artist, Joanna Lerio, who, by mistake had broken the girl’s heart and had their relationship ended just like the melody of a song.

One hot afternoon, looking for a new guitar, their ways had crossed again. Although an awkward moment, the girl had had this courage to ask the man, strumming a familiar melody in a classic acoustic guitar that is also a part of her past, if he would going to buy the instrument. Then the haggling had began, until the price is settled–the price of forgiveness and reconciliation.

An official entry to an international short film fest

The movie, actually, is an entry to the  180 Cinema Festival this year.

In a briefer provided by the producer and artistic director, de la Cruz, she said that the film is not only focused on the love lost and the love again found, but also on the richness of music culture in the Philippines.

Truly, it can be said that Macatiag’s movie is indeed a perfect combination of a good story, a good camera angling, a good musical score, and of course, good actors. What makes it more interesting is that the storyteller or the writer had shown his or her ability to deliver unto the audience a full narrative or a story that needs more time to tell, in just a few seconds — or 180 secs to be exact without sacrificing the integrity and the beauty of the script.

Although the story can be said as old as the first movie ever captured in a moving camera, it never failed to tickle the hearts and minds of the crowd, especially those who are considered “hopelessly romantic.”

One of the lines that really can retain to the audience’s heart and psyche is the line “Hindi mo na ba ako mapapatawad? (Can you not forgive me?),” followed by the scene of Lerio crying then putting her hand on the top of Umil’s hand, holding some cash as a payment for the purchase.

Technicality-wise, the movie didn’t lack the quality, although this reviewer perceives that the image of children playing on the side of the road can be removed without sacrificing the integrity of the script. Nevertheless, the said thing is forgivable for a neophyte.

On the last note, here is our rating:

Story – 4½ stars

Music – 4 stars

Other technicals: 4 stars