The Politics of Art & Authenticity

The film Bwakaw, from Jun Robles Lana, conveys several motifs through the development of the main character Rene as well as his dog and best friend, Bwakaw. In this film we observe the grumpy personality of Rene right from the start when he sends his neighbor, Nitang, off barely acknowledging her nice gesture of corned beef in the process. This harshness is completely unwarranted especially because she is asking for something very important in this instance, to see his Santo Entierro, a life-sized statue of Jesus, to help heal her niece who has a tumor in her lung. The pairing of this gruffness with the innocent and loving characteristics of his dog show the importance of their friendship and lend evidence to the theme that they complete one another. One way in which Lana conveys this idea is through the disease of Bwakaw. When Rene is informed of the diagnosis, he is distraught and does all he can to help his best friend. Although Rene’s efforts are futile, he fights to save her until the very end; trying everything from medicine to using the Santo Entierro to improve her health. During this exchange with illness, Rene seems to be afflicted as well and suffers along with her. One stylistic approach that plays a major role in Bwakaw is the simplicity of life. Rene has no means of transportation and lives in a modest house. Being that he is retired, his life seems to lack structure allowing him to do as he pleases. This use of this simplistic approach allows for the acute observation of the character’s true tendencies without the rigors of work, something I believe Lana will include in future films.

Bwakaw, for whom the film is named, is a vehicle for many themes that Lana conveys. One such example is the idea of enjoying life while it lasts and living it to the fullest. For the majority of his life, Rene denied the fact that he was homosexual and even tried to hold a long relationship to prove himself wrong but to no avail. The way that Bwakaw ties into this motif of living life to the fullest is through her example of how fleeting it really is. Another theme we can see through Bwakaw is the happiness that relationships bring to someone’s life. Rene is bitter towards anyone that bothers, and by bothers I mean talks to, him except for Bwakaw. Not only because she cannot talk but because of the fact that she provides Rene with unconditional love no matter how he treats her which is exactly what he needs in his sad, lonely life. Finally one last thing that Lana portrays with great reverence is the institution of religion and its affect on everyone in the town. To Rene, going to the church is only to make changes to last will and testament mainly because of his sexual orientation and the belief that God no longer wants him. The intervention of god, or at least the belief of intervention, is also seen as Nitang runs to tell Rene of the miracle brought about by the Santo Entierro and also when Rene asks the priest if he thinks god if punishing Bwakaw for his homosexuality. Lana effectively conveys these themes in this film and seems to have a bright future in the film industry if he continues to create gems like Bwakaw.