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While it opens impressively, ‘GomBurZa’ struggles in its first act. It’s impressive because it opens with the story of Hermano Pule, an “indio” who was repeatedly denied entry into the priesthood. The film takes a theatrical approach to this telling: it exits in an impressionist oblivion space with no backdrop and only a few props and a lot of motion to create the world of the story. It struggles, though, because as we enter into the world of the people telling the story – of the Philippines nearing the end of the Spanish occupation in the late 1800s – the film then has to establish the history of the land and the people. It takes a whole 30 minutes to familiarize ourselves with the political struggle and who the main operators are in this period political drama.

Director and co-writer Jose Lorenzo Diokno III (with co-writer Rody Vera) takes us into the battle of secular priests, Spaniards who were born in the Philippines, and the full-blooded friars as they battle over who gets to run the parishes in the cities across the islands. Even if they are Spaniards, or carry Spanish blood, having been born in the Philippines has made them victims of discrimination by the Spanish who come directly from Spain.

In the middle of all of this is Father Jose Burgos (played by Cedrick Juan), a liberal secular priest who dared to challenge the discrimination of the Spanish church and ended up becoming a martyr that helped sparked the revolution that won our country its freedom. This is not an unknown story to us. We were taught about this in general terms, broad stroke terms in our grade school civics and Philippine history classes. What the film ‘GomBurZa’ sets out to do is to show the events – no matter how small or inconsequential – that lead up to the revolution. The movie also humanizes these characters and situates it into the realm of the human. The film turns history into something relatable.

What is most striking about Diokno’s direction is how universal he makes it all seem – that the persecutions and the corruption that plagues this era is still prevalent until now – and this is the true triumph of ‘GomBurZa’ as a movie.Holding this film together is the spectacular performance of Cedrick Juan as Burgos. He just recently won the Best Actor award for the MMFF and you can see why. Despite the film’s positioning of the events of this movie, Juan manages to infuse Burgos with so much humanity. He’s not some fictional character. As a teacher, you can see him beam up with pride when his students show off their brilliance. When he turns serious, there’s something turning behind the eyes as he is considering the bigger picture. As Burgos starts to become more popular with the people, you can see a bit of pride bursting from his chest; he likes the attention though he tries to hide it. He’s made Father Burgos someone real.

After the thirty-minute mark, when the world and the politics (and the stakes) have been established, Diokno and his crew – including the fantastic cinematography of Carlo Mendoza that plunges this world in a sort of medieval darkness) – then starts to unravel this narrative of rebellion and freedom. We see how one little battle over who gets to run the parishes – whether it’s the Spanish friars or the secular priests – builds up into the eventual Philippine revolution. Diokno handles this with care as he knows that all of this is inevitable, but he tries to set up each scene as if it were just in that moment – nothing bigger than what it is at that moment. No wonder he won the Best Director award at the MMFF awards night as well.

But at 112 minutes, I actually wanted more from this film. The story merely takes us to the classrooms where Burgos teaches, the meeting rooms between the friars or the secular priests or the upper class of rich Philippine-born Spanish, who are also suffering from discrimination having been born in the country instead of the colonizer’s homeland. What I felt was missing is the world of the indios – the Filipinos – who are absent in this story. And, yes, they were nowhere near active agents in this political game that lead to the martyrdom of the three priests, but to see Burgos or any other priests’ interactions with them would have helped create a stronger relation to the film’s finale. As an historical epic with such a grand scope and vision, it could have afforded another 15 minutes to bring the story to the people whose lives were radically changed by the events that happen in the film.

‘GomBurZa’ is a very well-made film that can be demanding to its audience – it plays out in three languages: Spanish, Filipino, and Latin – and situates the world in all its political turmoil. It boasts of fantastic performances: Cedrick Juan, Enchong Dee, as the charming and carefree father Zamora, Elijah Canlas and Tommy Alejandrino as students of Father Burgos, and Ketchup Eusebio as one of the rich, Filipino-born Spaniards, who becomes a key figure in the story. It’s an important film that reminds us to learn from our history – that we have within us the power to rebel and to fight back against any sort of discrimination or oppression that stops us from living our best lives. The film reminds us that the little things count – from the way schools are taught to the way justice is meted out to the people – and that we have the power to overcome our oppressors if we just woke up to it.

My Rating:

GomBurZa is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.