A film about love, life and travel

Donsol is a relatively new tourist destination in Sorsogon where you get to see whale sharks, called butanding by the locals. It is now also the title of a movie directed by Adolf Alix Jr., who co-wrote a lot of Gil Portes films in the past.

Donsol may not be a whale of a movie in terms of scope and grandeur, but it certainly is no fingerling if you weigh it by the amount of talent we see on screen from the direction, writing and all the way to the performances of the actors.

The film stars Angel Aquino as a breast cancer victim who returns to Donsol to retrace a path filled with both good and bad memories. This time, she meets and eventually falls in love with a younger man, Sid Lucero, who works as a whale shark spotter for tourists.

It’s really no great story, but it tells a lot about love, life and death without necessarily being preachy. As a movie that espouses environmental awareness (save the whale sharks!), it doesn’t go for hard sell either. And to my relief, it doesn’t become a travelogue that shows only postcard pretty shots of tourists’ spots.

Donsol’s editing could be tightened a little, but somehow you enjoy its languid pacing because I guess that’s how you do it in a film with a rural setting. And to the credit of the director, you really feel the slow life in the barrio – no, not because the film drags and has nothing more to say, but because of its relaxed and serene mood that the filmmaker is able and successfully establish.

Its theme about coping with a terminal illness and its location are actually surefire ways of boring the moviegoers. But the director is able to make his scenes engaging and absorbing – plus add to that the fact that the performances of the actors are enthralling.

Donsol is actually an Eigenmann family show. Two of the three children of Eddie Mesa and Rosemarie Gil (Eigenmanns in real life) are there: Cherie is Angel Aquino’s writer friend and traveling companion in Donsol. As expected, Cherie delivers a fine performance and it’s always a delight to watch her. Her best scene is the part where she delivers bad news to Sid Lucero and you don’t even see a close-up of her and yet through her body movements she is able to convey the tragic message.

Brother Mark Gil is also in the movie as the husband of Angel who dies while shooting a documentary in Donsol. It is a short role and shown only in flashback, but as always he gives his all and you remember him even if it is only a brief appearance.

The Eigenmann who steals the show, however, is Sid Lucero, Mark Gil’s son. (Sid Lucero is the name of Mark Gil’s character in the film classic Batch ’81 and the boy uses that as a screen name as a tribute to his dad.)

To be in character, Sid gets his skin burnt – which is the easy part – and learns the dialect in Sorsogon (different from the rest of Bicolandia, I was told). Although I am partly from Sorsogon on my mother’s side and have traveled all over Sorsogon, except in, sigh, Donsol, I don’t know if he spoke it right and his accent was correct. The important thing there is that he seemed comfortable speaking it and that he made an effort to learn the dialect.

In the beginning, I thought he was really a native of the place because this is being done in other indie films (the best example is Daan Patungong Kalimugtong where they cast non-actors from the area). But aside from looking and speaking the part, Sid also successfully breathes soul into his screen character and you feel his passion, his dreams and his frustrations. This early you can tell that he is on his way to acting greatness.

Aside from Sid, Mark and Cherie, we shouldn’t forget Jaclyn Jose, an ex-Eigenmann in-law, who plays Sid’s mother in the movie. It’s not really a major role, but if you put Jaclyn there, it becomes an acting event.

And then there’s our heroine, Angel Aquino, who gives a quiet, but sterling performance as a woman whose physical and emotional pain is etched all over her. As a viewer, you want to take care of her because she is so fragile and weak. That’s how effective Angel is in her portrayal of a breast cancer victim. Her screen character is really able to reach out to the audience. Her Best Actress win in Cinemalaya is richly deserved.

Donsol, the movie, is also a winner (it was given an A grade by the Cinema Evaluation Board). Some viewers may find it slow but that’s how it should be to allow us to take stock of life.