CINEMALAYA 2011: FABLE OF THE FISH Review
Adolfo
Alix, Jr.'s Isda (Fable of the Fish) appears to be just
another movie set in the overexploited slums of Manila. Lina (Cherry Pie
Picache) and Miguel (Bembol Roco), a childless couple despite several years of
being married who have just relocated from the province to the city to change their
fate, arrive at the slums just in time to witness an unsurprising altercation
between a slum dweller and the police, which is expectedly spiced by rowdy and
overly involved onlookers. Unstirred by the unexpected but commonplace
boisterous welcome of their new home, the couple settle in. Miguel finds a job
in the nearby ice plant. Lina stays at home, taking care of the children of her
neighbors if she's not helping her husband in trying to earn money from the
dumpsite. Despite the harrowing conditions of the place where they decided to
live, Lina and Miguel's new life is strangely perfect, except that they have
not been blessed with a child of their own.
Then
Lina gets pregnant, and gives birth, amazingly, to a fish.
Alix
does not completely abandon reality in his foray into the supernatural. Picache
and Roco admirably wear their roles with unquestionable conviction, blurring
further the line that separates the gnawing reality of the depicted poverty and
the fantasy of the couple's situation.
Isda is also visually
intriguing, with the scenes framed purposefully, either to direct humor or to
forward the narrative. Cinematographer Albert Banzon ensures that the film is
not too grimly lit or too bluntly framed. The music, melodies randomly conjured
from a single violin, lends uneasiness to the affair.
Absurd
is a word that Isda draws its power
from. From the absurdity of families etching out decent lives from the indecent
conditions of the slums and the dumpsite to the absurdity of Lina giving birth
to a fish and attempting to be normal in an obviously abnormal family
situation, Alix maintains an unwavering consistency in his depiction. The film is
refreshingly mischievous, wearing a mask of seriousness amidst the hilarity of
everything that is going on. The film appears to be just one big joke, the same
big joke that screenwriter Jerry Gracio played on Lina and Miguel when he wrote
Lina's birthing to a fish into his screenplay. However, the film is indisputably
bigger than the sum of all the chuckles the obliviousness of its characters of
the blatant absurdity that they're living could ever produce.
Beyond
the absurdity and the tabloid-worthy uniqueness of the story that would most
probably be the center of all discussions about the film is a very simple but very
earnest portrait of a family. Alix maps the family's story with astute tenderness,
establishing relationships between each member, grounding them with logic and
emotions. More importantly, Alix does not place his story within a lifeless
vacuum. He concocts a community for the family to exist in and relate to. He has
created a world, exaggerated it seems with people living and raising families
side by side with garbage, that is ready to admit another glaring anomaly. The
truths of Isda, I believe, are as
weighty if not weightier than its delicious and deliriously memorable flights
of fantasy.
(Cross-published in Lessons from the School of Inattention.)