Muro-Ami 10 years after

MANILA, Philippines - Remember that landmark Marilou Diaz-Abaya film Muro-Ami which bagged 13 awards (including Best Picture) in the 1999 Metro Manila Film Festival?

The 10th anniversary of Muro-Ami was capped with a fitting program at the Marilou Diaz-Abaya Film Institute (MDAFI) in Antipolo City last Dec. 12, 2009 along with a symposium on the subject “Changing Climate, Changing Cinema.”

What do I remember about this film which had non-swimmers in the cast taking a crash course on swimming before actual shooting?

The exploitation of children was of course its searing subject but the filmmaker chose to weave her story not as an exposé but a poetic parable of evil in the high seas.

Abaya earlier intimated that Muro-Ami was her most personal film to date.” “The film was a very direct expression of my obsession and worship of the sea. All of the characters in it, including the role of Cesar Montano, are composites of the people I know. If I could introduce a part of my spiritual relationship with the sea with an audience that has never been underwater, that would be enough for me,” she pointed out.

Cesar, on the other hand, admitted Muro-Ami was his most difficult film, much more demanding than Jose Rizal which won him the Best Actor trophy in the 2001 Metro Manila Film Festival.

Cesar says, “I could do a sequel of Rizal and still improve on my output there but I will never do a repeat of Muro-Ami. Just doing those underwater scenes was as tough as getting the emotions needed to portray the inner turmoil of the main character.”

The actor said he saw direk Abaya’s tough side while doing Muro-Ami. “The research alone was overwhelming,” he said. “We had to be in good physical shape all throughout the shooting and working 40 feet underwater most of the time. Direk was a diver herself that’s why she could block scenes underwater. That’s why I didn’t complain because she was determined to do that film in spite of the difficulties. I can say that she is one tough director who liked big challenges.”

Muro-Ami was shot from Aug. 9 to Oct. 9, 1999 in Bohol. It involved the hiring of more than 35 child actors who passed the auditions based on two main criteria: Underwater swimming and acting skills.

I remember many cineastes couldn’t hide their disappointment when the Best Actor trophy eluded Cesar in that year’s festival with Pen Medina being cited as Best Supporting Actor and Rebecca Lusterio as Best Child Actor including Best Screenplay for Ricky Lee and Jun Lana. Cesar didn’t know bigger things awaited that film.

As it turned out, Muro-Ami won major prizes in the Second Festival International de Cinema in Benodet, France with the theme “Quest for Soul (Les Chercheurs d’ame).”

Not only did filmfest jury like the Philippines’ entry, Muro-Ami (The Reef Hunters). The Abaya film was also the Benodet public’s choice as Best Film. On top of that, Cesar bested male lead players from seven other competing films by winning the Best Actor award.

Abaya recalled that working with the children in Muro-Ami was a humbling experience. “For one, you sacrifice your director’s momentum in favor of the children’s health,” she said. “For another, I didn’t seek to control them. You wait until they are properly stimulated. I was at their mercy. Despite having about 20 rescue scuba divers to assist me, working with the children were both difficult and nerve-wracking at the same time.”

As it turned out, the Benodet festival theme, “Quest for Soul,” was perfect for the French debut of Muro-Ami.

The film depicted in part the barnacles eating away at the soul of Cesar (as the maestro pescador-master fisherman) in a sea voyage from an obscure Philippine village and beyond.

“For me,” said Abaya, “the film is about The Voyage and not about exploitation in the high seas, although that is one of the highlights. I just happened to use the universe of the sea.”

I also remember that the girl — Lusterio — who played the “boy diver” in Muro-Ami also won the Best Child Actor award and five years later bagged the Best Supporting Actress award in Cesar’s Panaghoy Sa Suba.

Other actors of the film apart from Cesar, Pen and Rebecca are Amy Austria (Susan), Jhong Hilario (Butong), Jerome Sales (Filemon) and Teodoro Penaranda Jr. (Tabugok).

Until now as I watch the film after 10 years, I still marvel at Rody Lacap’s breathtaking cinematography, Leo Abaya’s unique production design, Ricardo Lee and Jun Lana’s riveting screenplay and the glorious film scoring of Nonong Buencamino who partly used Bohol’s musical treasure, the Loboc Children’s Choir.

As I join Cesar and direk Abaya in the observance of Muro-Ami’s 10th year, I ask myself, “Where have all the serious and excellent films gone?”

In the symposium which followed the abridged screening of Muro-Ami, Cesar recalled that in working with Abaya, he was “killed” at least three times over — in Jose Rizal, Muro-Ami and Bagong Buwan.   

The “boy” who won the Best Child Actor award in Muro-Ami — Lusterio — is now a young lady of 20 about to finish her Com Arts course.

Ocean specialist Boy Siojo recalled the many instances when he had to remind Abaya about the danger of shooting scenes where characters were thrown unto the sea and were not supposed to breathe literally while under water. When Abaya insisted on that dangerous but crucial scene, Siojo let out a scream that could be heard as far as Tibet.

Randy David, who delivered a stirring personal paper in the symposium, said Muro-Ami was a path-breaking film and the most allegoric he had seen thus far. In the film, added David, the ocean was the main character with the characters led by Cesar reduced to mere fragments of the sea. In David’s book, Muro-Ami is Moby Dick and The Old Man and the Sea all over again.