A blessing from heaven

Rosa Rosal, who is celebrating her birthday tomorrow, recently lent me a copy of LVN Pictures’ Biyaya ng Lupa, which is one of her most important films. Released in 1959, the movie is directed by Manuel Silos and tells the story of the simple farming couple Maria and Jose (Ms. Rosal and the late Tony Santos) trying to raise their children with proper Christian values, but still goes through various trials.

The movie opens with their wedding scene and as a concession to commercialism we see folk dances that are neatly staged clearly for entertainment value. But even those sequences should be appreciated by advocates of culture and tradition today because we are shown what rural entertainment was like in those days — also what they wore and how they looked.

The succeeding scenes show the early days of their union. They are happy with each other — like any newlywed. Then reality sets in. Jose begins to plant lanzones on his farm, but these won’t bear fruits until after 20 years. He concentrates on other agricultural products meanwhile to support his growing family. Soon they have five children, but one dies in infancy.

As the movie progresses, we see Jose and Maria raise a family like any other — little fights among siblings here and there, but resolved eventually. Even the couple themselves does their own bickering from time to time. Finances also get tight because the harvest they are expecting from the lanzones trees doesn’t happen — no thanks to a typhoon that hits their area.

Then bigger tragedy strikes: The town outcast Bruno (Joseph de Cordova) rapes Jose and Maria’s only daughter, Angelita (Marita Zobel), and the family is turned practically upside down. More problems arise eventually: There is another death in the family, somebody rebels, bigger financial troubles arise and Angelita is forever traumatized by her tragic experience.

But for all the trials and tribulations the family goes through, they survive and they see redemption in the end. Perhaps there would be more problems in the future, but they are stronger and you know they will be able to overcome such obstacles.

50 years after it was filmed, you realize that Filipinos still uphold basically the same Christian values: Respect for the elders, do honest work, patience and the willingness to help others (the bayanihan spirit that we see now in the Ondoy and Pepeng aftermath). 

But fashion did change. In the provinces back then, women wore long skirts and were conservative (not necessarily true anymore since they, too, now follow the latest fashion trends). But the Manileñas were already fashionable even then and sported western dresses. The price of a suit — or what they called Americana: P30. Whew! That’s not even enough for pay parking in some malls today.

The prices of commodities may have escalated to heights people then may never have imagined, but Biyaya ng Lupa remains a classic — a masterpiece by Manuel Silos.

Voted FAMAS Best Picture that year, some critics of later generations dismissed it as a glorified soap opera. Sure, it lets you go through an emotional rollercoaster ride while watching it, but it manages to achieve its goal as a melodrama — a very well-made one.

The screenplay by Celso Carunungan is also tightly-written and is very creative. Some of the shots may be dated (those where the women show their fear face-to-face with the villainous Bruno), but that was the filmic style of that era and must have worked back then.

I also savor the fact that characters are not depicted in black-and-white. Bruno is not totally evil in the beginning. He is just misunderstood (everyone in the barrio believes that he killed his wife and women shun him — although they don’t have evidence against him). Even lead characters Jose and Maria are not pictured as perfect. They, too, have their own flaws — like they tend to play favorites among their children. But aren’t most parents even today guilty of that?

Performances are also excellent, especially Tony Santos. Leroy Salvador is also outstanding and, in fact, won as Asia’s Best Supporting Actor when it was entered in that international film festival the year after. Even Carlos Padilla, Marita Zobel and Danilo Jurado (as the youngest child) don’t do badly either. They are all impressive.

The one who holds the film together, however, is Rosa Rosal. There are scenes, particularly in the early part where her mestiza features are prominent (she is supposed to be a farmer’s wife exposed to the sun), but there is nothing that brilliant acting can’t transcend and you forget that she is of French-Egyptian origins.

When Biyaya ng Lupa was entered in the 1960 Asian film festival, Rosa Rosal was a favorite to win Best Actress, but lost by a mere point, half a point even. The judges all thought that she was really an old lady when they were grading the film and found out that she was actually a relatively young woman playing mother to grown up kids only after the votes had been tallied. She was that convincing in her performance in Biyaya ng Lupa. The judges found out the truth when Rosa showed up at the awards night look young and glamorous.             

It was a disappointment for her, of course, because that could have installed her as the first Filipino to win Asia’s Best Actress. What could have been Rosa’s achievement had since been accomplished by two other October-born actresses whose real names are Rosario: Charito Solis (born Oct. 6) in 1967 for Dahil sa Isang Bulaklak and Charo Santos (Oct. 27) in 1976 for Itim.

Today, however, Rosa Rosal has been bestowed with enough awards to fill up not just a room, but practically an entire house. And she had been acknowledged not only for her contributions as an actress, but also as a humanitarian — having received the very prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize) no less.

Biyaya ng Lupa may have been awkwardly translated to English as Blessings from the Land (for the benefit of foreign film audiences), but Rosa Rosal — in the field of entertainment and public service — no doubt is a blessing from heaven. Happy Birthday, Tita Rose!