Back in 2007, Ray Gibraltar produced a charming little film called When Timawa Meets Delgado, a strange hybrid between video essay, visual poetry, advocacy film, and narrative that went on to be championed by critics but largely ignored by award giving bodies and the general public. But it was clear to anyone who saw it that Gibraltar was a talent to be reckoned with; an exciting new auteur with an ear for satire and an amazing ability to get to the heart of the issues. His second film confirms his talent, made under the auspices of the Cinema One Originals program, confirms all suspicions about his talent. Wanted: Border is a powerful, disturbing film, and easily one of my favorite films of the year.

The plot is a little difficult to describe. The movie follows the lives of several characters that converge at the boarding/eatery run by Mama Saleng (Rosanna Roces). Unbeknownst to the loyal customers of Mama Saleng, the secret ingredient of her soup is human flesh and bone, butchered fresh from the occasional lost soul that finds its way to her doorstep. Along the way, we meet an obese woman with an endless appetite for food, a would-be documentary filmmaker unable to escape his addictions, and a young female student under threat from the urges of her stepfather as they all find their way to Saleng’s kitchen, and we learn of the past that would lead Saleng to her current ways.

This fragmented story begins on an act of violence. A man is stabbed with an icepick right outside Saleng’s eatery. Her customers run away in a panic, while Saleng sits on the curb more inconvenienced than alarmed or frightened, the violence commonplace in her world. This sets the tone for the rest of the film, which is easily one of the bleakest, most terrifying portraits of humanity ever committed to film. Gibraltar creates a world where people are driven solely by their Id. This surrealistic conceit provides a platform for a larger portrayal of the ills of society, the plight of the marginalized taken to an inhuman extreme as they commit acts of human terror on themselves and the people around them. Call someone a monster often enough, and they might just become one.

The movie is told in fragments, each scene seemingly existing in its own micro-universe, carrying its own tone and theme and brand of madness, the pieces fitting only loosely in the end, with enough space to find the devil lurking between them. Gibraltar juggles all the pieces with a master’s hand, shifting between tragedy, horror, commentary and dark, dark comedy effortlessly through this barrage of deadly sins and depravity. There is not a shot out of place in this film, every little frame building up the collective dread of this horrifying little world. Director of photography Ogi Sugatan serves up delicious imagery to match the ambition of the director’s vision. Fantastic editing from Tara Illenberger (perhaps the industry’s MVP for the year 2009) keeps everything flowing wonderfully.

And at the center of all this is Rosanna Roces. Many people dismiss Roces outright for having come out of the hot mess that was the Bomba film explosion of the nineties. But Roces is a terrifyingly good actress, and her performance in this movie might be the best performance of this year. Roces is equal parts sex and terror, playing at her monstrous proclivities with a sense of absentminded eroticism. There’s a sexual spark to her that becomes more obvious as we delve deeper into the history of her character, and it is that spark that gives her performance its true potency. Roces makes her evil inviting, even a bit innocent, and that is the most terrifying thing of all.

Wanted: Border is a difficult film to love. It is far too bleak, often too depressing to really hold a place in our hearts. I cannot imagine sitting through several more screenings of this film, lest my soul be taken away completely. But that’s a testament to the power of this film, in all its terrifying, unapologetic glory. It runs contrast from the emerging trends of Philippine independent cinema, eschewing realism for a more artful interpretation of the ills of society, fully using the cinematic form and its genres to explore the rampant inhumanity present in the world. It is our very own version of Antichrist, but better, less capricious, less in-jokey, and with a lot more to say.

My Rating: