In Shireen Seno’s opaque but beautiful drama, an eight-year-old Filipina finds a pen she believes responds to people’s feelings.
Nervous Translation from the Filipino artist and film-maker Shireen Seno (a former stills photographer for Lav Diaz) is a challenging film for the head and the heart, difficult to decode and to respond to emotionally. The title does not really help: nobody is “nervous” exactly – anxious, concerned, yes – and “translation” doesn’t precisely describe what is going on. But, as a slice of life, as a direct transcription of a child’s-eye view of the world, it is intriguingly and lovingly detailed.
The setting is the Philippines in the late 1980s, just after the end of President Ferdinand Marcos’s two decades in power. Yael (Jana Agoncillo) is an eight-year-old girl who is often alone at home after school before her mum Val (Angge Santos) comes back from a hard day’s work. Val’s husband, Yael’s dad, is away working in Saudi Arabia and communicates by sending intense audio tapes that Yael covertly listens to, not quite understanding the very adult expressions of confessional yearning. Her husband’s identical twin brother, Tino (Sid Lucero), comes around, and Yael uncomprehendingly picks up on the tension there, too.
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* This article was originally published here
Nervous Translation from the Filipino artist and film-maker Shireen Seno (a former stills photographer for Lav Diaz) is a challenging film for the head and the heart, difficult to decode and to respond to emotionally. The title does not really help: nobody is “nervous” exactly – anxious, concerned, yes – and “translation” doesn’t precisely describe what is going on. But, as a slice of life, as a direct transcription of a child’s-eye view of the world, it is intriguingly and lovingly detailed.
The setting is the Philippines in the late 1980s, just after the end of President Ferdinand Marcos’s two decades in power. Yael (Jana Agoncillo) is an eight-year-old girl who is often alone at home after school before her mum Val (Angge Santos) comes back from a hard day’s work. Val’s husband, Yael’s dad, is away working in Saudi Arabia and communicates by sending intense audio tapes that Yael covertly listens to, not quite understanding the very adult expressions of confessional yearning. Her husband’s identical twin brother, Tino (Sid Lucero), comes around, and Yael uncomprehendingly picks up on the tension there, too.
Continue reading...
* This article was originally published here
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