Insiang

Insiang is arguably Brocka’s masterpiece – it’s his most intense work, the intensity sustained from beginning to the end. It has the best-structured screenplay of all his pictures (by Lamberto Antonio, based on the original television script by Mario O’Hara); it’s also one of his most atypical, and atypical of even most other Filipino films. The intensity and structure go hand-in-hand; you might say that the structure is the source of the film’s intensity. The story is admirably compact, with only three significant characters (Dado, Tonya, and Insiang) in essentially a single setting (Insiang’s home – there are scenes elsewhere, but they could as easily be set at home), the events taking place in the span of a few days to a few weeks. The film is unique in another sense. Philippine cinema is dominated by the twin themes of love of mother and survival of the family; almost all Filipino films revolve around some aspect of either one. Insiang takes these two great, overarching themes and, with an unmatched ruthlessness, dashes them to the ground. The film is saying: there are no guarantees, not from family, not even from mother; if anything, the most painful betrayals are inflicted by mother and family. You are ultimately alone. (NV)