Pinoy indie film 'Busong" to open National Geographic filmfest in US

The Filipino indie film “Busong” (Palawan Fate) will be opening the "National Geographic All Roads Film Festival" at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, DC. on September 27.  

Directed by Auraeus Solito, "Busong" tells the tale of siblings Angkadang (Rodrigo Santikan) and Punay (Alessandra de Rossi) and their journey in Palawan, the film’s official website said.

 

The story focuses on Punay whose wounds on her body and feet make her unable to walk. Her brother Angkadang thus carries her on a hammock as they search for a healer.

 

On their way to the healer, the siblings meet different people, including a wife looking for her husband, a fisherman who lost his boat, and a man searching for himself. They all eventually help Angkadang carry his sister. Inspired by his mother's stories

"Busong" inspired by the stories director Solito's mother told him about Palawan.  

The film has three main stories — about land, sea, and forest, and how Karma (the Indian concept about the cycle of cause of effect) plays a role in these elements of nature.

 

“What you do to nature, you do to yourself,” Solito said.

 

In a movie review for GMA News Online, writer J. I. E.Teodoro said, "The three stories are interwoven in the film using the most poetic and lyrical images of Palawan’s natural beauty—the forest, the sea, the skies, the rivers, the coral gardens.” "There is nothing mystical about Palawan’s dying cultures and natural environment. Busong is a celebration of the elements—fire, earth, water, and wind. In the context of Palawan, these are realities that one would experience on a daily basis," Teodoro wrote.

 

He also mentioned how Solito’s film tackles real issues in Palawan — “indigenous people losing their ancestral land to greedy businessmen” and “blatant disregard for the special law that protects the province called the Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan.”

 

All Roads Film Festival

 

The "National Geographic All Roads Film Festival" began in 2004 to bring to light stories about underrepresented minority cultures and indigenous people all over the world.