Busong (Palawan Fate)

A Cinemalaya presentation of the Solito Arts production in colaboration with Alternative Vision Cinema, Voyage Galleries. (Worldwide sales: Solito Arts, Manila.) Created by Auraeus Solito. Executive producer, Jong p Castro. Co-producers, Hai Balbuena, Baby Ruth Villarama, Chuck Gutierrez, Alfred Vargas. Directed by Auraeus Solito. Script, Kanakan Balintagos, Henry Burgos.With: Alessandra p Rossi, Clifford Banagale, Dax Alejandro, Rodrigo Santikan, Bonivie Budao, Walter Arenio, Chris Haywood. (Tagalog, Palawano, British dialogue)A dreamlike meld of fiction and documentary presented around spiritual values and folklore in the Philippines' Palawan province, "Busong" is enriching as ethnography and sometimes frustrating as entertainment. According to tales told to helmer Auraeus Solito ("The Flourishing of Maximo Oliveros") by his mother, this heavily symbolic essay is superbly shot and consists of many striking sequences, but lengthy stretches of narrative inertia will challenge even devoted arthouse buffs. Pic has clocked extensive fest mileage since its Directors' Week bow at Cannes, and can test offshore commercial waters having a planned March 2012 release in France. Coming back towards the archipelago where he shot the 2002 docu "Basal Banar" (Sacred Ritual of Truth), which concerned risks posed to traditional Palawano existence by exterior business interests, Solito has composed this love letter to his homeland with just the slimest wisp of conventional storytelling. What little narrative it consists of involves Punay (Alessandra p Rossi), a youthful lady with crippling feet injuries along with a terrible skin ailment. Transported inside a hammock by her brother, Angkarang (Rodrigo Santikan), Punay is seeking a healbot for conditions which have avoided her from ever setting feet on the floor. With Punay's broken body becoming a metaphor for that affilictions and dangers facing Palawan, the script detours in to the lives of other people the brothers and sisters encounter on the mission. Distressed widow Ninita (Bonivie Budao) informs the storyline of her late husband, Tony (Walter Arenio), a logger fatally crushed by an amugis tree, that is held sacred in animistic Palawan culture. Briefly assisting to carry Punay's hammock is Lulong (Dax Alejandro), an angler can whose boy has drowned following an encounter having a hotheaded foreigner (Aussie thesp Chris Haywood) who states own the land and ocean which have given Lulong's family for decades. The conflict between old ways and new facts is embodied by Aris (Clifford Banagale, "Bruno"), a descendant of Palawan healers that has came back from Manila to assist Punay. Depictions of shamanistic traditions and tribal customs associated with cycles of birth, dying and resurrection are fascinating, but co-scripters Henry Burgos and Solito (credited under his Palawano tribal title, Kanakan Balintagos) too often break the spell with extended passages by which practically nothing happens. Connections between most of the figures moving with the frame are occasionally tough to determine. It makes sense an end-start experience which will still move many audiences using its plea for that protection and upkeep of Palawan culture, but distance others with hazy storytelling. Even throughout static passages, pic is well offered with a convincing cast of unskilled local stars who hold their very own in the organization of well-known entertainers p Rossi and Banagale. Lensing by ace d.p. Louie Quirino ("Amok") presents magnificent imagery of pristine beaches and forests, along with a sequence by which non-CGI seeing stars hatch from the human face is truly astonishing. Other tech credits are fine. Title means "fate," or "instant karma."Camera (color, HD), Louie Quirino editor, Chuck Gutierrez music, Diwa p Leon production designer, Hai Balbuena art director, Emerson Baltazar seem (stereo system), p Leon line producer, Balbuena underwater camera, Jamael Familara. Examined at Hawaii Film Festival (Spotlight around the Philippines), March. 17, 2011. (Also in Cinemalaya, Warsaw, Mill Valley, Cannes film festivals.) Running time: 92 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com