with
all its silence and stillness, i was already preparing myself to see
intimations of ghostly creatures while watching the first quarter of aparisyon.
imagine that feeling when you're watching a horror film, anticipating that the
evil ghost will be shown anytime so that you won't get the jolt of your life.
or at least just a little shock. that was how i felt. but when it ended, the combined
force of all pinoy horror films (except shake rattle and roll 1, hehe!) ever
produced was no match to the emotional tremor aparisyon provided. after all, it
was all about guilt and sin contrasting with the supposedly sinless setting of
a convent.
adorasyon
is a cloistered convent set somewhere in rizal. headed by mother superior
(fides cuyugan-asensio), the nuns are tasked to do a particular chore and are
expected to be in deep silence and unbroken meditation and praying. sr. vera (raquel
villavicencio) takes care of administrative duties while sr. remy (mylene
dizon) goes out to sell the convent's herbal products. one day, sr. lourdes
(jodi sta. maria), a novice was downed by severe toothache so remy was asked to
accompany the novice nun to the town's dentist. this after remy knew of his
brother's disappearance after a visit from her mother and younger brother. from
then on, she attended regular meetings of activists in the town center with lourdes
in tow. one night, on their way back to the convent, a group of bandits stopped
the two nuns and raped lourdes.
the
strength of aparisyon is in its haunting contrast of binary oppositions… a
cloistered convent kept from any outside influences but was still affected by
the milieu the bigger society was in; a nun devoid of any earthly desires being
raped and getting pregnant in the process and the same nun thinking of having
an abortion. the very convent the nuns were in should have shielded them from
violence but the exact cloister prevented them from "doing the right thing"
when that single act of violence happened. first, remy was able to escape but
left lourdes in the hands of the rapists. this even when she was the reason why
they were not able to go back right on time. as it was told, both mother
superior and vera witnessed the incident but chose to remain silent throughout
lourdes' ordeal. maybe because of self-preservation but one would initially
felt that both senior nuns might have stopped the bandits from succeeding but
eventually decided not to act on it. mother superior event went as far as
preventing any investigation to take place reasoning that opening the convent
would break the monastic routine. vincent sandoval, the director, was
successful in leaving a mark of contrasting themes. the convent was supposed to
be invulnerable from sins but the ordeal lourdes was in proved that even the
most prayerful individuals are not immune from committing grave indiscretions.
redemption
was especially hard to achieve. even when prayers are said many times over, the
nuns seemed not to find peace and atonement. in one of the powerful scenes, remy
allowed lourdes to slap her over and over. no words were ever said between the
two but this scene was one of the film's strongest points. jodi sta. maria and
mylene dizon are two competent actresses who deserve more important roles than playing
fidgety characters on TV. vera (villavicencio also did a wonderful job here) did
the traditional penitensya route by wounding
herself to atone for her sins, sins of omission. but it was mother superior, despite
her never-ending composure, who seemed not to have found inner peace even when
she was deep in her meditation. cuyugan-asensio inhabited the self-control and
self-assured mother superior but was intensely ruined by her guilt. when she
was mistakenly seen as the devil by the previous mother superior now suffering
from alzheimer's disease, her fragility became apparent.
guilt.
aparisyon is all about guilt and the choices one makes in order to repent or atone
for their so-called sins... or in some individuals, the choices they did not
make. a silently potent film, a great work from sandoval and the cast.
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