Maicling pelicula nañg ysañg Indio Nacional (O ang mahabang kalungkutan ng katagalugan)

A husband tells his wife who cannot go to sleep, a story expressing the disharmony of the world. Then comes a silent movie in black and white, situated in the 1890s, at the heart of the Filipino revolution against Spanish colonialism. A series of tragic or comic sequences tells the “three ages” of an Indio (an “ordinary man”) as he is in turn a village choirboy, a bellringer, a teenage revolutionary, and an adult actor rehearsing a popular Spanish play. As the people around him flee from the raging war, the Indio has to face a more personal dilemma: escaping his tormented soul. Exploring the Filipino spirit tragedy under successive colonizations has been a constant theme with the country’s foremost artists, from José Rizal to Lino Brocka, to Lav Diaz’ epics. Martin adds to this heritage a profound poetic touch, creating a world both mysterious and familiar, a film that takes on from the silent movie language combined to piano music to fight political, religious and artistic repression. By combining the story of a nation and a historical film language through a personal vision, Martin has given contemporary Filipino cinema one of its most truly original works.” (Roger Garcia)