Heart wrenching and warming Pan de Salawal (2018) in Netflix is a must-watch

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My nephew and I decided to watch Filipino films listed in Netflix as break  from the usual fare. I was hoping for titles which can represent  the artistic vision of Filipino directors  but I could not see some. I have seen one (Arisaka) with Maja Salvador as a cop with story on Bataan Death March as base but I  didn't like it because the story could have been developed  well if given some deeper reflection and thoughts on how to do it. Hinog sa pilit as we say which means it ripened just because it was forced to, thus, I was even thinking that the story material  was wasted. But I gave credit to the  scenic shots and play with light and dark.

I did not give up, and I happily stumbled on Pan de Salawal starring Bodjie Pascua of my childhood Batibot, a Filipino version of Sesame Street, as Sal or short for Salvador. The girl's acting here played by Miel Espinosa is also promising. This is a 2018 film but I can say that this can be watched at any time thereafter.

Pan de Salawal is the debut entry of writer-director Anna Francesca Espiritu to the Cinemalaya film festival. This can easily be loved as this is a magical realism.

The film tells about a close-knit community in multi-local-migrant-populated Manila where a street child named Aguy (loosely mean, Ouch for pain)  transforms the depressing lives of sick people by inflicting pain on them by pinching or punching to restore their health. However, despite Aguy’s mysterious healing power on other people, she fails to cure Salvador’s illness, the person who gave her a home. What kind of pain will Sal undergo inorder to be healed?

Aguy the street child is a figurative for a deep understanding and acceptance of undergoing pain as a means of finding healing, physically or emotionally or spiritually. Pain can also be a purifying agent for us to come out into a new person. 

Faith, magic, God, and hope abound in this film while smile can also be drawn out from time to time too given the title which suggests many things -- there's Sal for salvador or/and salt, pan de sal the Filipino  breakfast bread, Salawal for the underwear.




      

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