Lola by Brillante Mendoza

“Lola”, which means grandmother in Filipino, follows two grandmothers as their lives become slowly intertwined after a stabbing incident involving their grandsons. One is the grandmother of the victim (Aling Sepa played by Anita Linda), the other, the grandmother of the suspect (Aling Puring played by Rustica Carpio).

I gravitated to this film because I wanted to see how Brillante Mendoza would pull off a film following two perspectives. I assumed that the film would follow two specific paths: that of a family belonging to a hero and that belonging to a villain, but it was a bit more than that. Instead, you find yourself following two seemingly frail old women a few days after the stabbing. One focused on finding money to pay for expensive funeral arrangements. The other working to find money in the hopes of arranging a settlement with the former, attempting to save her own grandson from time in prison.

Either way you immediately find what the two grandmothers have in common: they are poor. And not only that, they are the matriarchs, the decision-makers, and the financial overseers of their respective families.

Visually, “Lola” felt like a documentary. The camera followed each grandmother, often in one solid take for a long period of time. At first these long and boring shots were very frustrating to me because I knew that it wasn’t a documentary. It also had this “Blair Witch” shaky cam feel that didn’t help at all.

But after some convincing acting from both grandmothers you are sucked into the film. You begin to wonder what will happen next in what seems to be a movie spontaneously shot. It was as if Mendoza was following two old women in real life, covering their every move to ensure he didn’t miss anything that may contribute to the final result. When in reality everything was pre-written in a script. Or was it?

Every sound on the street had its part in the film as well. The gritty ambience further contributing to the unedited, documentary feel of the film. Right from the beginning you know the actors aren’t in studio but in the midst of a very real Manila. They walk on loud streets along side actual citizens carrying on with their daily lives. Were these real lolas as well, carrying on with their lives after this life-changing stabbing incident? No of course not, it isn’t a documentary. But was that a real court room with a real judge? Was this a real jail cell with real inmates? Mendoza’s eye for reality coupled with the use of real people and real places adds to this feel of the film.

And since it seems Brillante Mendoza was given permission to enter actual courtrooms and jail cells, it was my first time to catch a small glimpse of the Philippine justice system. Which depending on who is watching, is depicted as a broken system or a system that has no choice but to leave most of the work to the citizens. Over-population and slim budgets burdened by other faults in a grander scale contribute to the over-whelming weight placed upon these two grandmothers. I guess its the same either way.

So who wins? Does the grandmother of the victim obtain justice via the courts sending the grandson of another lola to jail? Or is the latter able to obtain enough money and convince the former on a settlement, freeing her grandson instead? How do they go about obtaining their separate yet dependent ends?

If you can bear the initial boredom of lengthy shots and shaky camera work, you will be duly rewarded with the answers. If not, you probably shouldn’t bother watching this film and try one with more polish. But polish and shiny camerawork comes at a cost, the expense of a sense of realism and the very monochrome view of just one perspective.

Lola
Directed by Brillante Mendoza
Starring Anita Linda and Rustica Carpio

Cast: Tanya Gomez, Jhong Hilario, and Ketchup Eusebio.