IT’S IMPOSSIBLE to watch Ma’ Rosa without tearing up, or, in my case, weeping.
It’s a gripping drama of how the poor make ends meet, and the consequences they face when caught making a less-than-honest living.
Of course, Ma’ Rosa is, by no means, an original story. Many films have come and gone which depict how poverty eats at the very core of one’s humanity, turning many who would have otherwise just lived quietly and honestly into criminals. And yet, we the audience are encouraged to sympathize with the lives depicted in these films, because they simply had no other choice.
Like Director Lino Brocka (think Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag) before him, Brillante Mendoza in his films shows his audience the seedy and seamy side of the metropolis and its amoral inhabitants. They are all-too-familiar people, with stories that speak of their troubles in varying degrees of gravity. Like his previous outings, Mendoza’s Ma’ Rosa is dark and gritty, using shaky, out-of-focus/in-focus camera movements and shots to further depict the troubled lives of its characters and their grimy, chaotic and claustrophobic surroundings.
In the film, Rosa (played by the brilliant actress Jaclyn Jose) and her husband Nestor (Julio Diaz) run a small sari-sari store in some impoverished area, which could just be anywhere in Metro Manila.
To augment their meager income, they sell shabu on the side, earning P300 to P500, depending on the size of the packets. Meanwhile, she rails over the uselessness of her husband, who also has a drug habit, even as her equally useless sons—Erwin (Jomari Angeles) and Jackson (Felix Roco)—who should be either working at real jobs or in school, run off to do their own thing. Only her daughters, especially the one in college, Raquel (Andi Eigenmann), offer a measure of hope out of their unbearable existence.
The major conflict arises when undercover cops raid the family’s hovel just as they are about to have their dinner, with the police finding the illicit drugs along with the money Rosa and Nestor have earned from the trade. They are brought to the police station through the back way, and the cops then badger them to admit to their crime and go to jail, or just pay them P200,000 and be let go.
They give up the name of their source, Jomar, who is caught, as well, and whom the cops also try to shaft into giving them more money in exchange for his freedom. We eventually find out that Jomar reports to one Major Jasmin, either a police or a military officer. (Ouch!) Despite giving up their dealer’s name, of course, the couple is still detained. They still have to pay the cops P100,000—the price has gone down in consideration of their “cooperation.” The burden now falls on their three older children to come up with the money so they could be freed.
Jackson tries to hock everything he can grab in their home to raise some cash in their neighborhood. Raquel approaches their relatives, especially the dreadful Aunt Tilde (Maria Isabel Lopez), Nestor’s sister, who Ma’ Rosa doesn’t see eye-to-eye with. Erwin, meanwhile, goes to bed with a regular older male client in exchange for the direly needed funds. Ma’ Rosa’s kids are not so useless, after all. And even her bitch of a sister-in-law eventually hands over some money to Raquel, after much screaming and hurling insults at the latter’s mother.
It is the last scene, however, that is most gripping. Rosa stops to take a bite of fishballs, and as she looks to a family packing up their apparent legit retail business for the night, the tears well up in her eyes and finally trickle down. She is just like any mother on the fringes of society, desperately trying to keep her and her family’s heads above water, while she struggles and thrashes her legs underneath. It is a life of quiet desperation, but one she needs to cope with and sacrifice much for her family’s sake.
It is a scene that, yes, breaks our hearts, as well, to quote one of the judges at the recent Cannes Film Festival, which honored Jose with the Best Actress prize.
Things we learned from Ma’ Rosa:
- When arrested, make sure you go through the front door of the police station, never the back door.
- It’s better to get your arrest/case on the police blotter, otherwise the cops can always deny they have you.
- People who you think are your friends, aren’t really. Especially when you need their help.
- You can count on family, no matter what. Even if they don’t like you.
Ma’ Rosa is still showing in select theaters. Please catch it. It’s as timely as the events that are unfolding today. Only thankfully, no one gets killed in the film.