Karnal

A fork in the road brings Narcing (Phillip Salvador) back to his hometown of Mulawin, rumored to be located not so far from Hell. Freshly married, he arrives from Manila in the hopes of introducing his wife Puring (Cecille Castillo) to his relatives. Gusting (Vic Silayan), the family’s domineering patriarch, does not welcome the couple kindly. Still scarred by the suicide of wife, Gusting immediately resents his son for what he perceives as a betrayal: the loss of land-owning heritage to the vulgarity of city women. Spite mingles with jealousy, turning to something altogether more sinister when Narcing’s behavior begins mirroring that of his father who, in turn, begins noticing Puring’s uncanny resemblance to his wife.

Following Brutal (1980) and Moral (1982), Marilou Diaz-Abaya closes her informal feminist trilogy with Karnal, a striking example of Filipino Gothic set in the 1930s. Inspired by a sordid true crime story, what begins as archetypal Filipino melodrama soon turns to horror: a Village of the Damned-inspired study of the places that turn people into monsters and of the cruel, feudalistic patriarchy that continues to have deadly repercussions for Philippines politics today. The latter is embodied brilliantly by Vic Silayan, on the heels of a similar, monstrous turn as a tyrannical father in Kisapmata (1981).

Marilou Diaz-Abaya was a film and television director and screenwriter. She  began her career in the 1980s and was  part of the generation that defined what  is today remembered as the “Second  Golden Age of Philippine Cinema.” Her first collaboration with screenwriter Ricky Lee was Brutal (1980).  They would go on to collaborate on half of her filmography. Brutal was a box-office success and a  critically acclaimed work, for which she received her first Best Director award from the Metro Manila Film Festival  (MMFF).  She emerged as a bold experimenter of storytelling structure and a fierce creative protester of the harrowing plight of women in a male-dominated society. Moral (1982), was named  Outstanding Film of the Year by the British Film Institute.  Karnal (1983), received the Best Picture prizes at the MMFF and the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS). It was also named one of the Ten Best Films of the Decade by the  Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino. She directed television and gave the public a variety of shows. In 1997, she directed Rolando Tinio’s Milagros, which won ten awards at the  Gawad Urian, and the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino named it one of the best films of the decade. Sa Pusod ng Dagat (1998), received the International Federation of  Film Critics/Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema Award at Singapore International  Film Festival. Her Jose Rizal Best  Picture and Best Director, at the MMFF and FAMAS, and was named one of the best films of the decade by the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino.  Muro-Ami (1999), also won Best Picture and Best Director at the MMFF and FAMAS. Bagong Buwan (2001) likewise won the Best Picture and Best Director prizes at FAMAS. She established the Asia Pacific Film Institute in 2005 and then the Marilou Diaz-Abaya Film Institute and Arts Center in 2007.