Act Of Faith

By confronting the climate of the martial law era, Ishmael Bernal and Ricky Lee’s legendary 1982 film Himala helped bring to public consciousness questions of belief, identity, and authority. Now, 36 years later, several artists are bringing Filipinos back to the town of Cupang at a time we need it most. Emil Hofileña speaks to the architects of the film’s latest revival to discover how they created the quintessential theater experience

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In the beginning, there is darkness.

An eclipse has fallen over the dusty, drought-stricken barrio of Cupang. As the townspeople scatter in fear, a young woman named Elsa—an outsider in her already underprivileged community—hears a voice speak her name. She follows it to the foot of a dead tree on a hill and she falls to her knees. The eclipse passes and Elsa discovers that she has been blessed with the power to heal any affliction. But as she begins to perform her own miracles, the town only becomes increasingly divided, and Cupang plunges into hysteria.

As unflattering as this portrayal of a Filipino society may be, many of our greatest films are just as fiercely critical of the Filipino identity. Lino Brocka’s Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag follows a provincial boy looking for greener pastures in the city, only to end up a victim himself. Eddie Romero’s Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon? questions a farmer boy’s transformation into a “civilized” member of society. Ishmael Bernal’s Manila by Night reveals a city rife with addiction and poverty. And in 1982, Bernal’s Himala brought us to Cupang, a godforsaken land blinded by both faith and desperation.

Of course, one cannot remove these films from the context in which they were created. Struggling against a dictatorial regime that sought to mask suffering with progress, filmmakers under Ferdinand Marcos’s rule exposed what was being hidden. “I was in prison, 1974. 1976 ko sinulat ‘yung script ng Himala,” screenwriter Ricky Lee recalls. “Kaya it was full of anguish and suffering and injustice and questioning. Idolatry sa isang autocrat, sa isang magnified figure na susundan