The Politics of Art & Authenticity

Credit To: http://cinespect.com/2012/10/impressions-of-the-50th-new-york-film-festival-pt-1/bwakaw/

There is no more obscure of a movie to watch at the New York Film Festival than Bwakaw, a Filipino film about an old homosexual man and his loving dog. The story revolves around the old man, Rene, and his various interactions with old friends, new ones, and his little stray dog Bwakaw. Although the film is named after the wonderfully trained dog, the real focus is on this old man’s attachment to her and his seemingly unattached behavior toward every one else. But I believe that Rene’s eventual change of heart about his world and his attitude toward his dog isn’t because he is lonely now, rather, he is trying to make up for lost time in his wasted life.

The film’s director, Jun Robles Lana, does a great job of conveying Rene’s self-endused loneliness. In the beginning he is all alone, he pushes people like his neighbor and his fellow workers away from him, making him look like an angry old man. Instead of sitting on his porch yelling at children to get off his lawn, he instead goes after the people around him and actively pushes them away, at one point even hitting his old friend’s son/daughter’s nose because he was making fun of Rene’s hair. As the story progresses you see a gradual change in the way he acts toward the people around him, Rene begins to understand he needs these people, and his dog Bwakaw who begins to sleep in the house with him. Rene opens up more and more to his friends as he attempts to win back his life, which he realizes he has little left of when a co-worker of his passes away in a very comedic scene.

The film’s very dramatic undertone coated with various comedic scenes creates a more realistic world for Rene. His entire life is coated with an inner struggle, his homosexuality, which Rene didn’t embrace until late in his life. The inner struggle of the film between a comedy and drama mirrors Rene’s own life long struggle. The film takes a more dramatic turn at the same point Rene’s inner struggle is faced head on, which lays out the rest of the movie as solely dramatic as Rene’s struggles become more prominent. But Rene himself is the best example of how life has passed him by yet he begins it all over again. Rene was never truly alone, he always had friends and someone by his side, such as Bwakaw who is by his side late in his life. When he begins to see life fading away, such as a very comedic scene where he ends up putting his own burial casket in his living room because the funeral home closed down, Rene sees new opportunities in his life. He connects more with his old friends, tries to win over the affection of a former enemy, and grows closer than ever to his ever faithful dog Bwakaw.

I see Rene’s life beginning at a very old age. His growing connections weren’t manifested from loneliness, they sprouted from a need to live, a need to breath, feel, love the same way every one else did; the same simple way his dog lived her life, eating, relaxing, and being with her best friend. Rene isn’t the old man yelling at kids from his porch anymore, now he is the young boy playing in the grass.