Batad: Sa Paang Palay
Batad: Sa Paang Palay is about Ag-ap, an adolescent Ifugao boy, who is obsessed with his dream to own a pair of shoes and to explore the world outside the remoteness of his highland home.
By its namesake, the movie is set in the rice terraces of Batad, in Banaue, Ifugao. With verdant terraces and panoramic views of the mountains, the movie can be a visually pleasing cinematic treat. Thankfully, the movie did not over-ethnicize everything.
The story was simple and beautiful. In widesight, it brushes up on how Ifugaos struggle with modernity’s onslaught on their traditions and customs. A scene wherein a local teacher was showing Ag-ap a bulul, a wooden Ifugao god, which he plans to sell to foreigners and tourists reminded me of Sionil Jose’s The God Stealer. Similar issues are raised in the film, but going through them might be over-reading the film already. In general, the film invokes social consciousness on the struggles of the Ifugaos and the rice terraces. The film ended with a reminder that the Ifugao rice terraces have already been declared as an endangered human heritage site by UNESCO.
I only have one negative comment though. Unlike Donsol, where the actors were made to speak in the native language as their setting and characters demanded, here we have Ifugaos speaking in straight Tagalog, even among themselves! (Which can be read as a disregard of the traditional polarity between highlanders and lowlanders). To add to this inconsistency, minor characters within the main characters’ peripheries were speaking in native Ifugao, which all the more makes the main characters seem oddly out of place in the highlands.
Directed by Benji Garcia and Vic Acedillo, Jr., Batad: Sa Paang Palay won the awards for Best Screenplay, Best Production Design, and Best Actor (for Alchris Galura) at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival 2006. It was also given the Special Jury Prize.
True, it’s probably better that they speak in the native dialect, but I suppose it’s good that at least there’s a movie about the cordillera people. since it looks like you’re a film student, perhaps your 1st movie can be on the cordillera but with the correct native language/dialect.
i enjoyed the movie. made me want to go to banaue actually.
don’t be afraid to “overread” a film, that’s what criticism is all about. the film, after all, becomes a text which is open to your interpretation. you may see connections, themes, etc regardless of the author’s intention, and your reading will just be as valid.
[...] Last Thursday, I went to my only class that day, Hong Kong Cinema class. I attended a UP MCO (Mass Communicators Organization) general assembly afterwards. Then, I watched Ang Huling Araw ng Linggo and Batad: Sa Paang Palay at Cine Adarna with some of my UP MCO orgmates. [...]
too bad i missed this movie. would you know of any future screenings? Or are they coming up with a vcd/dvd? Thanks
i hvent seen the film but i have been to batad and it is really a very magnificent place. it was the 1st time i saw the poster of Batad sa paang palay coz the natives were really recommending us to watch the fil except that they did not know when and where it will be shown. reading the tagline would made me want to watch the film. it is also significant for me coz we had a very great time visiting the place. Good thing it will be shown on march 2007. i would definitely not miss it
I haven’t seen the movie yet..Can anyone lend me a copy or sell me one?:D (if anyone can, please email me at elaine_catherine102386@yahoo.com, i’d really really appreciate it…tnx!) By reading this critique, i think that i could definitely relate to the movie because our undergraduate thesis was about the Ifugao youth’s role of preserving the Banaue Rice Terraces. My classmates and i have gone to Banaue three times these past four months to film our video documentary (we also had a GREAT time–everyone was hospitable to us). We’ve been to Batad last November, and i agree with most of the comments–it is definitely a wonderful place. Simply breathtaking. It’s just sad that the film’s message is true. Ifugao youths are now more inclined to city life. i hope that this film would help raise awareness among them. It’ll be terrible to lose a treasure such as the rice terraces.
ganda pO ng batad!! haha!!
simply the best…
i watched this movie for my chemstry class at first i got mad because no relation in chem. i have nothing to do thats why i watched it..
that is why i must say that half of my life completed..
i wish to have a copy of batad…a really like the film..
i just watched the batad last sunday and i agree that the characters in the film should have used their native language instead of the tagalog…. anyway, the overall….. its nice and very relistic
Hey can you help find out the names of the characters? please