'Green Bones,' the movie

"GREEN Bones," the entry that won Best Film at the Metro Manila Film Festival, takes a look at our penal system and the society that is responsible for it.The scriptwriters are the renowned Ricky Lee with Anj Atienza and Kristin Tulao from an original story by JC Rubio. The director is Zig Dulay, and the cinematographer is Neil Daza.The film is beautifully photographed. It shows a prison in a rural area near the sea with seemingly ideal conditions for outdoor work, healthy surroundings and beautiful scenery. I would guess it was shot in Palawan or Mindoro. It is properly isolated from the nearest town, shown as accessible only by sea.The principal character, Domingo Zamora, or "Dom," is played by Dennis Trillo, who won the Best Actor award. And the supporting character who also won the prize for Best Supporting Actor is Ruru Madrid. The child star, Sienna Stevens, was the prizewinner for the child actor category.It is certainly an award-winning film. It is also one that tugs at Filipino heartstrings as it tells the tale of a low-life pickpocket who nevertheless has a heart of gold as exemplified by his loving and dedicated relationship to his sister and her daughter who is deaf. Yet he encounters the tragedy of circumstances he and the society he lives in has brought on himself.Dom is a petty thief who preys on his fellows and has built a notoriety that makes him suspect of more than thievery. Society judges all the time, always on the side of retribution, revenge, punishment and the bigger sin.This is what we see in the first part, thieving, murder, attempted escape, capture. Then comes our institutions supposedly there to confront, correct, protect and stabilize against criminal elements. Here is where we see the reality of torture to extract confession, the propensity for authority to edge into sadism, the tyranny of power over weakness. Convicted of murder of his own sister and niece, he is tossed into our penal system under the onus of punishment due. There he pretends to be as deaf as his niece, uses the sign language learned from her to enclose himself within the dire reality he has fallen into. Silence may have brought reflection, regret for the past, resignation to the present. He is the murderer who has to pay his debt to society. Yet his fellow prisoners appreciate him.Then society materializes in the appearance of a new corrections officer who has his own past to carry. His sister has been murdered, and he is on fire for revenge. He zeroes in on Dom, a murderer of a sibling and creates an obstacle course to prevent his release for good conduct under the pretentious (you will see why) rehabilitation program of the prison authorities.Revenge versus rehabilitation might be one theme. There is another, a penal system that is not only flawed because of the underlying weak justice system resulting in circumstances that are almost more criminal than the inmates it guards and torments.The movie brings on the larger issues of crime and punishment against the backdrop of a society that may not be capable of doing it right.Why Green Bones? Because the dead whose bones are green are considered good people. And there are a lot of dead people whose bones are not green.See it for yourself. And congratulations to the director, original story author, scriptwriters, cinematographer and the cast (including a pussycat) who brought this film to us. Mabuhay ang Metro Manila Film Festival!