1982 | 2h 4min | Directed by Ishmael Bernal / Written by Ricky Lee
Synopsis
The apparition of the Blessed Virgin in a poor island village sparks national hysteria, nascent greed, and doubts of faith, overwhelming the life of the young woman at its center. Asia-Pacific Screen Awards/CNN Viewers Poll (2008): Best Asia-Pacific Film of All Time.
Availability Window
7pm, Nov 13 – 7pm, Nov 27
How to Watch
Click on the following link to access the film’s Eventive page: Miracle. On this page, click on “Buy” or “Pre-order” (don’t worry, you will be able to screen film free of charge) and you will be prompted to enter an unlock code, which is (case sensitive):
siglo*de*epifania137a*z
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Curator’s Commentary
Himala/Miracle has permeated Philippine culture since its premiere at the Metro Manila Film Festival some four decades ago, and images and lines from the film continue to spawn memes, parodies, and impressions on tiktok and youtube.
The film finds three iconic figures of Philippine cinema at the height of their powers: The writer Ricky Lee, director Ishmael Bernal, and actress Nora Aunor. The idea for the screenplay first came to Lee when he heard about a friend’s encounters with faith healers. Lee went on to develop the story based on the series of claimed apparitions of the Blessed Virgin to some schoolgirls on the small island of Cabra from 1966 to 1972.
Bernal had written and directed a series of formally and thematically sophisticated films that often explored the conflicts between personal freedom and social mores. His apprenticeship started with the great film director Lamberto Avellana and he was first exposed to the international arthouse currents of the time while taking philosophy and literature courses in France. Himala bears glancing references to Fellini (the Saranghina scene of the prostitute dancing for the children), Bergman (the procession of the faithful in an atmosphere of doubt), and Buñuel (darkly comic depictions of the wages of Catholicism) but is nevertheless dazzlingly sui generis.
The film’s lead actress, Nora Aunor, had risen from poverty in the provinces after winning a singing contest. Short in stature and dark-complexioned in an industry that favored caucasian-mestiza actresses, Aunor became the center of hysteria-driven mass adulation. She became known for mesmerizing audiences into the emotional life of her characters with the mere use of her eyes. Himala’s story, of a poor country girl, suddenly experiencing celebrity, somehow mirrored Aunor’s life while also providing an allegory of a country trying to escape the ravages of the Martial Law years when the film was produced.
The story could be divided into 1) Faith emerging, 2) Faith breaking down, and 3) Faith reasserting itself. Its converging threads explore in multi-faceted ways the whole gamut of belief, from atheism to blind faith, turning the film’s obscure Philippine village into an anguished, yet sometimes comic, microcosm of the human search for belief in a confounding universe.
—Gil Quito
About the Director
Ishmael Bernal, who directed some 50 films and was named National Artist of the Philippines, is widely regarded as one of the country’s all-time greatest film directors.
Working his way from lower-middle-class beginnings, he graduated with a degree in English from the University of the Philippines then apprenticed with the veteran director Lamberto Avellana. Bernal later earned a licentiate in French Literature and Philosophy from the University of Aix-en-Provence and a diploma in Film Directing from the Film Institute of India in Poona.
Before launching his directorial career, he established the coffee shop When It’s a Grey November in Your Soul, which became a favorite haunt of Manila’s artists and intellectuals. He made a sensational directorial debut with Pagdating sa Dulo/At the Top about a couple clawing their way to movie stardom. The film depicted the combustion of different social classes that he would explore through his career and displayed the sophisticated, sometimes darkly satirical and often experimental, sensibility that would mark his greatest works.
Watch the Trailer
Accolades
Winner: METROMANILA FILM FESTIVAL – Best Film, Director, Actress (Nora Aunor), Supporting Actor (Spanky Manikan), Supporting Actress (Gigi Duenas), Editing, Art Direction, Sound Engineering, Cinematography; CHICAGO INT’L FILMFEST – Bronze Hugo; GAWAD URIAN: Dekada Award for Ten Best Films of the Decade; CNN & ASIA-PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS (2008) – Best Asia-Pacific Film of All Time
Supplemental Materials
Himala Ngayon/Himala Now (2012, 2 hours). This documentary produced by Cinema One and directed by Sari Raissa Lluch Dalena and Keith Sicat, features in-depth interviews with cast and crew and is a superb retrospective look into the making of the film and its continuing significance: