By
Randy Renier I. Espinoza
The big sleeper
at the recently concluded CineFilipino Film Festival 2013, Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita tied with Ang Kwento Ni Mabuti for the festival’s coveted Best Picture prize.
Its lead performer, newcomer child actress Teri Malvar, caused an upsent when
she was proclaimed Best Actress, besting multi-awarded actress Nora Aunor, who
was predicted to win the plum. A worthy answer to Auraeus Solito’s now-classic Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Huling Cha-Cha is a coming-of-age film by
newbie filmmaker Sigfrid Andrea Bernardo about a young girl, Anita, who
realizes her sexual identity when she starts falling in love with the new woman
in the village.
Set in Obando,
the film offers a subtext, conflicts larger than Anita’s own internal
struggles, an underlying story from which Anita’s own saga is born and
developed. Obando is known for its yearly fiesta that culminates in a mass fertility
dance where townsfolk and devotees of Santa Clara partake of the festivities. Santa
Clara, the town’s patron saint, is believed to be miraculous and grants the
wishes of childless couples who, wanting to have children, join the dancing.
The narrative
offers two parallel but somehow distinct worlds: the carefree world of children
and that inhabited by adults who manage their domestic affairs and take part in
community activities.