Busong (Palawan Fate)

A Cinemalaya presentation from the Solito Arts production in colaboration with Alternative Vision Cinema, Voyage Art galleries. (Worldwide sales: Solito Arts, Manila.) Produced by Auraeus Solito. Executive producer, Jong p Castro. Co-producers, Hai Balbuena, Baby Ruth Villarama, Chuck Gutierrez, Alfred Vargas. Directed by Auraeus Solito. Script, Kanakan Balintagos, Henry Burgos.With: Alessandra p Rossi, Clifford Banagale, Dax Alejandro, Rodrigo Santikan, Bonivie Budao, Walter Arenio, Chris Haywood. (Tagalog, Palawano, British dialogue)A dreamlike meld of fiction and documentary presented around spiritual values and folklore within the Philippines' Palawan province, "Busong" is enriching as ethnography and often frustrating as entertainment. Based on tales told to helmer Auraeus Solito ("The Thriving of Maximo Oliveros") by his mother, this heavily symbolic essay is fantastically shot and includes many striking sequences, but extended stretches of narrative inertia will challenge even devoted arthouse buffs. Pic has clocked extensive fest mileage since its Directors' Week bow at Cannes, and may test offshore commercial waters getting an organized March 2012 release in France. Returning for the archipelago where he shot the 2002 docu "Basal Banar" (Sacred Ritual of Truth), which concerned risks posed to traditional Palawano existence by exterior business interests, Solito has composed this love letter to his homeland with only the slimest wisp of conventional storytelling. What little narrative it includes involves Punay (Alessandra p Rossi), a young lady with crippling ft injuries together with a dreadful skin condition. Moved in the hammock by her brother, Angkarang (Rodrigo Santikan), Punay is seeking a healbot for conditions that have prevented her from ever setting ft on the ground. With Punay's damaged body being a metaphor for your affilictions and dangers facing Palawan, the script detours to the lives of others the siblings and siblings encounter around the mission. Distressed widow Ninita (Bonivie Budao) notifies the story of her late husband, Tony (Walter Arenio), a logger fatally crushed by an amugis tree, that's held sacred in animistic Palawan culture. Briefly aiding to hold Punay's hammock is Lulong (Dax Alejandro), an angler can whose boy has drowned following an encounter getting a hotheaded foreigner (Aussie thesp Chris Haywood) who states own the land and sea that have given Lulong's family for many years. The conflict between old ways and new details is embodied by Aris (Clifford Banagale, "Bruno"), a descendant of Palawan healers which has returned from Manila to help Punay. Depictions of shamanistic traditions and tribal customs connected with cycles of birth, dying and resurrection are fascinating, but co-scripters Henry Burgos and Solito (credited under his Palawano tribal title, Kanakan Balintagos) too frequently break the spell with extended passages through which absolutely nothing happens. Connections between the majority of the figures moving using the frame are from time to time difficult to determine. It seems sensible an finish-start experience that will still move many audiences having its plea for your protection and repair off Palawan culture, but distance others with hazy storytelling. Even throughout static passages, pic is well offered having a convincing cast of unskilled local stars who hold their unique within the organization of well-known artists p Rossi and Banagale. Lensing by ace d.p. Louie Quirino ("Amok") presents magnificent imagery of pristine beaches and forests, together with a sequence through which non-CGI seeing stars hatch in the human face is really astonishing. Other tech credits are fine. Title means "fate," or "instant karma."Camera (color, HD), Louie Quirino editor, Chuck Gutierrez music, Diwa p Leon production designer, Hai Balbuena art director, Emerson Baltazar appear (stereo system system), p Leon line producer, Balbuena underwater camera, Jamael Familara. Examined at Hawaii Film Festival (Spotlight round the Philippines), March. 17, 2011. (Also in Cinemalaya, Warsaw, Mill Valley, Cannes film festivals.) Running time: 92 MIN. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com