Amy (Gina Pareno) is already a grandmother, yet she still earns her
money wandering the streets collecting bets for a widely popular but
utterly illegal lottery, Jueteng. Basically she walks the streets
of her neighbourhood all daycollecting bets and trying to persuade those
who don't believe in gambling to try their luck nevertheless while at the
same time (not always successfully) trying to evade the police - while her
husband (Fonz Deza) stays at home pretending to run a small store but
actually mainly watching television.
Amy however isn't quite as tough as she pretends to be/is supposed to
be still she has never come over the death of her teenage son (Jhong Del
Rosario) two years ago and still seems to see him sometimes actually - and
because of this, she is always on the frontline when the local priest
(Nanding Josef) asks to collect alms for the dead ... and one day, when
she sees a man shot in the street, she does everything in her power to get
him to a hospital, totally forgetting that she was hit by the bullet as
well, which (probably) kills her in the end ...
Kubrador is a small film, done on a low budget and almost
documentary style (meaning sequences are mainly filmed in very long takes
with a subtle handheld camera), but director Jeffrey Jeturian and
screenwriter Ralston Jover are sure enough about their plot to know when
to add action, melodrama or irony to make this one not one tired example
of ethnological filmmaking but a fresh, at times even (moderately)
exciting piece of narrative cinema, that's also kept alive by its
womderful lead Gina Pareno giving a powerful yet subtle performance.
Recommended.
|