The Tender Truth

Lor, Harvey D. | 2014-53481
Ms. Louise Jashil Sonido | Eng 10 WFW5
Critique Paper: War Is A Tender Thing (1st Draft)
17 September 2014

The Tender Truth

Filmmaker Adjani Arumpac, a University of the Philippines Diliman BA Film graduate, simultaneously narrates the story of her broken family and the continuous war in Southern Mindanao in her 70-minute documentary film War Is A Tender Thing. The film mainly revolves on the issue of the conflict between Muslims and Christians and how the seemingly unending quest for peace and freedom affects the individual lives of these people.
The movie started with a landscape, subtly setting the mood of the film’s whole storyline. The pineapple, a known livelihood of the South, plantation initially gave depth to the movie, creating an ironically stunning feature of the Land of Promise. Basically, landscapes were crucial parts of the movie. Every now and then, peaceful and beautiful images of different environments, such as roads, walls with gun shots, mutualism between a carabao and a bird and forests, were being shown, persuading the viewer to look not at it, but on the ironies and metaphors within them. Land, a factor of production, was a key topic of the whole documentary. The wars of today traces back its roots to the central government’s plan to industrialize the then peaceful island of Mindanao. Heavy migration of natives, Arumpac’s ancestors, for example, from the northern parts of the Philippines, paved way to the displacement of many Moros from their homes and lands. Ownership of the areas were eventually given to the immigrants by the government through resettlement policies, a small step in fulfilling a larger agenda: that is, to open an economic traffic in Mindanao, not for the people but for the interests of the capitalists.
The movie talked about this issue in such a way that it tried to explain a big thing by looking at the small things. The participation of Arumpac’s family was a brave act, compromising the privacy of their own lives. It’s also remarkable that while many people try to avoid talking about sensitive topics such as the anatomy of broken families, Arumpac was not afraid to use it as a strong element of metaphor in her the documentary.
The mother of the filmmaker, a Christian, stated that the individual differences between her and her husband, a Muslim, was the cause for the separation and not just merely, or exactly, religious differences. Just like the conflict between Christians and Muslims, it is not really the contradicting beliefs that fuels this war. Instead, it is the economic and social differences, to name a few.
The film also tackled about the 2012 peace talks between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front regarding the process in achieving Bangsamoro. The struggle of a separate political entity within the Philippines has long been an activity of the Moros. Insurgencies were a part of their everyday life, upholding to their dream to rule themselves with peace and harmony, without the help or inclusion of a third party.
Narrations from Arumpac gave a more personal touch on the story. Rhetorical questions were scattered throughout the film which would awaken your empathy and sympathy alike. The use of indigenous music was also obvious with the sound of percussion instruments, adding a more nationalistic and dramatic touch.
Close-up techniques also were evident when Arumpac was interviewing her parents, giving the audience a clearer view of the emotions painted on their faces. The apathy that was shown by Arumpac’s mother regarding the wars in the last few minutes of the movie was clearly captured, brilliantly emphasized. It was a personification of the majority, if not whole, of the Filipinos today. The last scene was darker as it seemed. The sound of the non-stop dripping water and its poetic kick was satisfying. Just like it, the war in Mindanao is continuous unless a permanent solution will be addressed to cure the cut: eradicating poverty, for example.
The documentary gave justice to its title, that war really is a tender thing. A new point of view was shown, a whole new story was shown: telling us that war is not all about the blood and gore of humanity. Though physical damages are the more disturbing elements of an aftermath, it is also interesting to know how it affected the mindsets and ideologies of the people concerned.
Arumpac’s film as a whole was a serious and raw exhibition of a social and national issue that we thought we already know: the Mindanao war. The film was, in the end, successful in achieving its goal: that is, to break the long-known misconceptions and to wake up the consciousness of today’s ignorant minds.