Limbunan (The Bridal Quarter)
written and directed by: Gutierrez 'Teng ' Mangansakan II
produced by:
Cinemalaya Foundation
and
Gutierrez Mangansakan II
(Bidadali House Productions)
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34th Gawad Urian 2011 nominated for:
Best Film
Bidadli House Productions
Best Director
Gutierrez Mangansakan II
Best Screenplay
Gutirrez Mangansakan II
Best Cinematography
Mc Robert Nacario
Best Production Design
Paramata Ednawan
Best Sound
Dempster Samarista-WINNER!!!
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Official entry of the 6th Cinemalaya Film Festival 2010
(New Breed Category)
Venice Film Festival 2010 (entry)
Jogyakarta Asian Film Festival 2010 (Indonesia)
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2010 (Greece)
Wiesbaden Exground Independent Film Festival 2010 (Germany)
Dubai International Film Festival 2010 (UAE)
Singapore Art Museum-May 2011 (Singapore)
Jogyakarta Asian Film Festival 2010 (Indonesia)
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2010 (Greece)
Wiesbaden Exground Independent Film Festival 2010 (Germany)
Dubai International Film Festival 2010 (UAE)
Singapore Art Museum-May 2011 (Singapore)
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Starring
Tetchie Agbayani**Jea Lyka Cinco**Joem Bascon
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Limbunan is the story of a young Moro bride-to-be named Ayesha.
Set in 1989, the film captures the ritual motions of the women in a family as they prepare for the wedding of 16-year-old Ayesah who has been betrothed to a man she barely knows. As Maguindanaon tradition dictates, she will be kept from public view in her private quarters limbunan where she will be prepared, readied, and pampered for her wedding.
As preparations for her union is underway, Ayesah is reunited with her childhood tutor Maguid who returns to the village as a militiaman after an absence of five years, reawakening Ayesah’s past memory of childhood infatuation.
Throughout Ayesah’s confinement her precocious and rebellious eight-year-old sister Saripa becomes her eyes to the world beyond her room. Her mother Amina keeps her composure despite the fact her husband sleeps with his second wife half of the time, finding solace in the belief that it is both her religious and familial duty to be an obedient wife.
Ayesah’s aunt Farida is tasked to ensure that she is prepared for the wedding. However, Farida’s dark past challenges Ayesah’s resolve finding herself choosing between love and loyalty to tradition and family.
Limbunan is set in the upheavals of Corazon Aquino’s presidency and the days prior to the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which hopes to bring an end to the Moro insurgency in Southern Philippines.
Limbunan is set in the upheavals of Corazon Aquino’s presidency and the days prior to the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which hopes to bring an end to the Moro insurgency in Southern Philippines.
Reviews have been received from various critics which we are sharing with readers:
“In lyrically detailing the curious pre-nuptial rituals that a very young Maguindanao woman undergoes in Mindanao in southern Philippines, Limbunan lays the pros and the cons of tradition and change that any society in transition confronts. There’s no hard sell here: only images and stirrings of wisdom that fill the viewers heart and mind in one meditative flow of humanity and empowerment. Limbunan is that rarity: a poetic movie with a gadding edge,” Joselito Zulueta, Philippine Critics Society.
Director Teng writes: “As a member of the Maguindanaon nobility whose history can be traced as far as the 1300s, I have been captive to a norm that arranges marriages between families. The reasons vary from political, (alliances can ensure victory in the elections), conflict resolution (two warring families may marry their children to seal a peace pact), or maintain royal lineage (families want to avoid having their children married off to people of lesser rank).”
“In lyrically detailing the curious pre-nuptial rituals that a very young Maguindanao woman undergoes in Mindanao in southern Philippines, Limbunan lays the pros and the cons of tradition and change that any society in transition confronts. There’s no hard sell here: only images and stirrings of wisdom that fill the viewers heart and mind in one meditative flow of humanity and empowerment. Limbunan is that rarity: a poetic movie with a gadding edge,” Joselito Zulueta, Philippine Critics Society.
Director Teng writes: “As a member of the Maguindanaon nobility whose history can be traced as far as the 1300s, I have been captive to a norm that arranges marriages between families. The reasons vary from political, (alliances can ensure victory in the elections), conflict resolution (two warring families may marry their children to seal a peace pact), or maintain royal lineage (families want to avoid having their children married off to people of lesser rank).”
“Arranged marriages are particularly difficult for women because, oftentimes, they have no voice on the matter.”
“Having grown in the company of women, my mother, sister, cousins, aunts, grandmothers, I gravitated towards their stories. I was always in the kitchen, taste-testing their recipes or eavesdropping on their conversation. I was drawn to their tales, their dreams, their longings.”
“Having grown in the company of women, my mother, sister, cousins, aunts, grandmothers, I gravitated towards their stories. I was always in the kitchen, taste-testing their recipes or eavesdropping on their conversation. I was drawn to their tales, their dreams, their longings.”
“Limbunan in a way is not my story, but a story woven out of the narratives of the women in my life, told through a unique ethnic sensibility, through Maguindanaon eyes, through my own lens of memory.”
“It is an ode to my rich ancestry, an allegory on the unequal relationship of the Philippine government and the Bangsa Moro people, a meditation on silence amidst the endless cycle of poverty, violence and armed conflict in southern Philippines.”
“It is an ode to my rich ancestry, an allegory on the unequal relationship of the Philippine government and the Bangsa Moro people, a meditation on silence amidst the endless cycle of poverty, violence and armed conflict in southern Philippines.”
Gutierrez Mangansakan II is a filmmaker, writer, and heritage conservationist from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, southern Philippines. A pioneering Moro filmmaker, he has directed short documentaries and experimental works that explore different facets of the armed conflict in his homeland.
Limbunan is his first full length narrative film.
Limbunan is his first full length narrative film.
photo credits:
Limbunan Fanpage on Facebook
Limbunan Fanpage on Facebook
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