tribu

Saw this during the 9th Cinemanila International Film Festival more than two weeks ago in Gateway Malls, Araneta Center.

Tribu begins with a religious festival and ends with a payback killing.

TV journalist Jim Libiran's experience covering conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan for ABC5, as well as his memories growing up in Tondo, popularly considered to be Manila's 'fifth circle of hell' prepared him for his first foray into commercial moviemaking. His creation, which exploded into instant fame upon winning Cinemalaya's highest honors in July, is a visual stew of Italian neorealism, guerrilla documentary technique and occasionally wry humor vaguely recalls Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' City of God, detailing a similar milieu in the slums of Rio.

But what differentiates Meirelles and Libiran, is that the latter made heavy use of hiphop music composed in situ by the lead actors themselves,who were total amateurs as well as authentic gang members when they signed up for the Tribu's principal shoot.

Most striking of all is the director's homage to the past masters of Pinoy cinema. The establishing shot of Tondo's skyline seen from the Pasig River vaguely recalls Lino Brocka's opening shot of Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag. The initiation sequence of a blindfolded young man and woman is lifted straight out of Mike de Leon's Batch '81. When they are not engaged in internecine fighting in Tondo's sidestreets and alleys,they could be seen in their natural surroundings: making love, sleeping, eating, quarrelling with their loved ones,doing drugs,attending funeral wakes among other things. But the most interesting,albeit fleeting bits are those involving a hapless collector of electric bills and the philosophical lament of a street food seller regarding his clientele's debts.

For an urban slum like Tondo,it is quite startling to see well-fed, overweight people move around the screen, compared to films set in Rio,Mumbai or any other Third World hellhole,where the stereotypical cast member resembles a walking skeleton. Except for the occasional pistol, the choice of weapons used in Tribu are those time-tested,full-contact standbys: bladed implements and blunt objects graphically illustrated in Scorsese's Gangs of New York,aided by homemade pillbox grenades made to be flung at the enemy from a reasonably safe distance.

Again,the journalist in Libiran comes into play: to spare the audience the sight of ugly wounds and copious amounts of blood flowing, pitched battles are staged at night,as well as handheld camera and editing techniques ensure that the violence is kept to a minimum. When steel actually bites into flesh, Tribu barely skips a beat and jumps to another sequence.