First Light

The debut feature from Filipino-Australian filmmaker James J. Robinson is an elegant and quietly devastating examination of belief, community and institutional corruption in a mountain community, centred around a rustic nuns’ convent and a conspicuously majestic church.

Forty-something Sister Yolanda (Ruby Ruiz) lives in a colonial mountain convent and works at the local hospital where she is admired for her kindness and piety. After giving last rites to a young man involved in a horrific construction accident, the nun is troubled by the nature of his death. She starts to piece together the circumstances of the accident, in her gentle way, through her interactions with those in her close-knit community, including the dead man’s father, the local priest and the wealthy wife of the construction site owner. In discerning anew the power structures around her – including the centre of her world, her beloved Church – her belief system and the very reason for her existence is put into question. 

Robinson brings a distinguished background in photography to his first feature, with its long takes and painterly tableaux-style mise en scène. His restrained, patient approach lends dignity and observance to the characters, allowing them to be seen, in their wrongdoings and their kindness, through minute glances and soothing words.

– Michelle Carey

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