abs-cbnNEWS.com
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After the much-ballyhooed "humiliating" incident at the Korean embassy, the young cast of indie film "Tribu" received warm welcome and accolades at the ongoing Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) in Korea.
The film's director, Jim Libiran, who leads the Philippine delegation, said the audience composed mostly of Koreans, was stunned on learning how Korean embassy officials treated the film's creative team including its actors.
It was reported that one of the actors, an unknown real gang member in Tondo, was issued a visa effective only after the PIFF. The filmmaker and the actors were settled only after a closed-door meeting with the concerned embassy staff and officials. The visa was granted and four male performers of the film became part of the Philippine delegation.
In Korea, the experience seems to have been forgotten. "Tribu" was sold to an SRO crowd.
"First day pa lang ng Pusan Film Festival, sold out na agad ang three (3) screenings ng 'Tribu’ sa malalaking cineplexes dito sa Haeundae District ng Pusan, South Korea," Libiran told abs-cbnNEWS.com.
Even Cultural Center of the Philippines head Nestor Jardin had to come in with Jeremy Segay, programmer of the Cannes Film Festival. Such response, Libiran was told, was unusual in the New Currents section competition of the prestigious film festival.
The cast, consisting mainly of real-life gang members in Tondo, received the most applause.
"Tribu," entitled "The Boys of Tondo" for international film festivals, tackle the gangsta-rap subculture in Tondo which was once the subject of Libiran's documentary report for ABS-CBN's "The Correspondents."
A Different World
"It's a different world, with its own rules," the director says. "We got these gang kids together and started to work with them and they stopped trying to hate each other. In the end, these kids became best friends."
Shot on a minuscule budget over 12 days and nights in Tondo, "Tribe" follows its 10-year-old narrator, played by Kal Egger Balingit, as he watches the people around him sucked into a cycle of violence when a gang member is found dead.
The backdrop for the gripping tale is the notorious poverty of Tondo and the free-style rapping and hip-hop that dominates the daily lives of the kids. The gangs meet at night in back rooms to practice their rhymes -- and to party.
"These kids, they're the real poets," says Libiran, who is also a Manila native. "They rap about their lives, what the see, what they want. Most of the time, all they really have are their words."
The film unfolds at a frantic pace, darting from room to room and street to street as its colourful characters struggle with their daily existence. And those characters are the kids themselves -- recruited by Libiran without knowing how combustible the situation could become.
"We posted signs all over the place asking the local kids to try out for the film," he says.
"We got six of the 12 gangs to turn up at the same time and when they saw each other it looked like war was about to break out. These are people who had been fighting each other for years."
But by giving away food and talking about a way out of the slums, Libiran was able to win their support and get them to go along with the project.
He knew he had won them over when the gangs themselves went to older members of the community to get additional money after funds for the production ran dry.
"The older members of the community saw how much this meant to the kids, so they asked us what we needed to get the film made," the director says. "We didn't ask any questions, we were just thankful for their help."
"Tribe" has already won the award for best picture at the Cinemalaya Awards for independent Philippine films and has been invited to next year's prestigious Berlin Film Festival.
At Pusan, it is up for the New Currents prize -- one of 11 films from across Asia vying for the festival's sole award, which is only open to first- or second-time film makers. The award will be announced on Friday.
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