The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros

Many films have been made that provide a realistic picture of slums. Filipino film history has many classic example of this, but the touching lightheartedness of this portrait of life in a slum is very different. The title refers to 12-year-old Maxi, who lives with his motherless family in what is no more than a hovel. His relatives maintain themselves by a life of crime, while young Maxi is given a kind of mother role. However young he is, he is obviously gay and flutters cheerfully through a life filled with effeminate gestures. A considerable part of the great charm of this film is thanks to the young actor Nathan Lopez, who plays the part of Maxi. Maxi’s young life is complicated when he makes friends with a young, idealistic cop. It is important to remember in this context that a young transvestite in the Philippines is a lot more common than an idealistic police officer. The latter is an almost surreal phenomenon. As a result, there’s lot of unrest in Maxi’s ‘family’ about his strange relationship with this unthinkable policeman. The film demonstrates how fertile it is to combine light-footed digital film making with telling a story on location. Auraeus Solito is one of a first generation of digital Filipino film makers, from which we are sure to hear a lot more. (GjZ)

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