Pilar as Leona Calderon: Not just another OFW story

One may be prone to dismiss it as just another Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) story when poor country folk started working abroad to take over the responsibility of rearing the family. From the time the country started surrendering its natural resources that ended up in someone’s pocket, we have had them all. Stories of families breaking up, children reared in an unnatural environment by a single parent back home. Slowly the lonely single parent back home acquires another partner, a new hobby, a new addiction. Anything to break the desolation and the feeling of abandonment. Suddenly, the breadwinner abroad meets another forlorn creature and they gravitate towards each other. What more is there to say?

Much more! Much, much more as we were to find out from Leona Calderon, Pilar Pilapil’s stunning portrayal of an OFW worker in the UK who finds she has cancer and that she must make choices. Pilar is onscreen 90 percent of the film. We meet characters moving in and out of her life. When she makes the decision that would end or extend her life, she is alone. It is a remarkably simple process of buying the dress she had long wanted, accepting the parlor gays’ offer of a beauty and hair treatment. And yet we cannot help the tears from welling.

Leona Calderon was chosen as the opening film at the 12th Gwangju International Film Festival in South Korea last Nov. 8 to 12. Fil-British Jowee Morel wrote, produced and directed the indie film shot in London, which 15 films from 50 nations joined as a tribute to former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, Nobel Prize recipient in 2000. The festival is non-competitive but the buzz that accompanied its showing convinced director Jowee and Pilar that it should be shown in festivals throughout the world, especially after its theme tackling healthcare portability as an advocacy has become of prime importance. Producer of Leona Calderon is Andy Villalba of the paralegal staff of the Philippine Embassy in London and who is determined to bring the issue before Parliament if need be. Portability means that those who enjoy healthcare benefits in the mother country like the UK, should be able to bring it with them wherever they go.

We first met at the Viva offices after Pilar called us personally on the cellphone. It was also she who got Viva to distribute the film, hunting down Boss Vic del Rosario, who gave her a five-year acting contract, and direk Jowee a three-year contract. “I believe in providence,” she told us, as she shared the belief that the film will go places because it was meant to be.

Greg Canestrati is the homeless bum Leona feeds ,Fil-Brit Jowel Morel directs the Gwangju Filmfest opener, Virginia Mckeena waving at her friend, Leona, Iconic Junix Inocian plays a guest role in Leona Calderon

Jowee said the story was a combination of three real-life women in the UK but it could very well be the story of everyone. After 35 years of working as a cleaning lady, Leona is preparing for retirement and a trip back to the Philippines, to the children she has missed, to the paradise island in her province. Her fun-loving nature has helped her keep her sanity through all these years. We meet the people she has won over — her grumpy landlord who loves music as she does, the hungry homeless bum she feeds, the Pinoys inviting her for a free haircut.

But we are most touched by the elderly English lady watching from the window as she digs into discarded rubbish that can still be used. They wave at each other. Yet we as viewers feel a strong bond between them. They next meet when she is brought by an ambulance to the hospital and Leona finds her clothes in the rubbish bin. This is 81-year-old English artist Virginia McKeena, British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) Best Actress for A Town like Alice and Carve Her Name with Pride, and Sir Laurence Olivier Best Actress for The King & I with Yul Brynner as the King in 1979.

Another is Junix Inocian, Repertory Philippines’ trained actor of some 60 plays who moved to the UK to play the lead role of Engineer in Miss Saigon, and later Old Deuteronomy in Cats. He comes home when he can to appear in plays, the latest of which was in Rep’s Jekyll & Hyde. In Leona Calderon, he plays a Filipino living alone who often forgets to take the medicine for his kidney malfunction. He has one short scene with Leona who has come to remind him to take his medicine, but in that scene we feel Leona’s strong belief in life, while Junix would rather give up the ghost.

The death of both her friends affects Leona greatly. Perhaps also because both are such great actors, dialogue is not even needed to deliver a message. The film marks the start of a new period in Pilar and Jowee’s careers — and in the treatment of OFW stories.

(Write us at [email protected]. The Judy Ann factor moved to Dec. 21.)