'Limbunan' ( Bridal Quarters) is the new film of Maguindanaon filmmaker Gutierrez Teng Mangansakan II, an entry to the 6th Cinemalaya Film Festival which was shown at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila.
The film stars Tetchie Agbayani (Farida), Joem Bascon (Maguid), Jea Lyka Cinco (Ayesah), Jamie Unte (Saripa) and Mayka Lintongan (Amina).
In Limbunan Tetchie Agbayani plays Farida, Ayesah’s aunt, who is tasked to ensure that her niece is prepared for the wedding. However, Farida’s dark past challenges Ayesah’s resolve finding herself choosing between love and loyalty to tradition and family.
Set in 1989, the film captures the ritual motions of the women in a family preparing for the wedding of 16-year-old Ayesah who has been betrothed to a man she barely knows. As Maguindanaon tradition dictates, she will be kept from public view in her private quarters –limbunan— where she will be prepared, readied, and pampered for her wedding. As preparations for her union is underway, Ayesah is reunited with her childhood tutor Maguid who returns to the village as a militiaman after an absence of five years, reawakening Ayesah’s past memory of childhood infatuation. Throughout Ayesah’s confinement her precocious and rebellious eight-year-old sister Saripa becomes her eyes to the world beyond her room. Her mother Amina keeps her composure despite the fact her husband sleeps with his second wife half of the time, finding solace in the belief that it is both her religious and familial duty to be an obedient wife.
Ayesah’s aunt Farida is tasked to ensure that she is prepared for the wedding. However, Farida’s dark past challenges Ayesah’s resolve finding herself choosing between love and loyalty to tradition and family.
Saripa
Teng's film Limbunan has been invited as the closing film in the International Critics’ Week of the Venice International Film Festival to be held from September 1 to 11, 2010.
No Filipino film has ever been featured in the line up of Venice Critics' Week. Seven to eight films are chosen every year from first time directors for this festival section.
Limbunan glimpses into the life of a bride-to-be as she is kept from public view prior to her wedding as tradition dictates. The film follows the ritual motions of the women in a Muslim family after 16-year-old Ayesah’s betrothal to a man she barely knows. It was, arguably, the critics’ favorite in the sixth edition of Cinemalaya.
“[Limbunan] is striking for its patience, and its graceful exploration of a culture that would otherwise face condemnation in the hands of a less nuanced and open filmmaker,” noted Clickthecity.com’s resident film reviewer Philbert Ortiz Dy.
“The film is just beautiful, both visually and thematically. Mangansakan imparts a dreamlike atmosphere to even the most mundane of actions, drawing a connection between past and present, family and culture, tradition and self-actualization,” Dy added.
Critic Francis Cruz hailed its “stylized storytelling and its undeniable splendor, [the film] is most importantly, a very personal ode to his [Mangansakan’s] often misunderstood and misrepresented cultural roots.”
This is the second straight year that a film panned by the jury in Cinemalaya has made it to Venice. In 2009, Pepe Diokno’s Engkwentro was invited to the festival and later won the Best Film in the Orizzonti Section and the Luigi de Laurentiis Award for debut film.
Limbunan will similarly be competing for the Luigi de Laurentiis Award which is given to the best debut screened in all sections of Venice International Film Festival. It comes with a cash prize of US$100,000.
My kudos and congratulations to a friend-Teng M. for this new film, in fact I am dying to find his other works-a documentary about Mindanao artists that included myself with an interview, and the film about Hashim Salamat. I had the privilege to know more of this gifted auteur including his feistiness but with a tender soft heart, when we were invited to attend a Peace Week Mindanao held at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang where I gave a lecture on Mindanao art, and his film was screened. We ultimately made a bonding coz of our same perspective and passion in the promotion and preservation of our threatened traditions-his in films and mine through visual arts-painting. We have the same in common in terms of this goal and aspiration to promote our heritage to a bigger stage using contemporary mediums.
Teng M. in yellow shirt and a very intently gaze, I'm in blue polo shirt with the dean of College of Art & Sciences in his home demonstrating and teaching us batik art making
In this painting, entitled 'Kawing' is a depiction of such theme where the bride is forced into marriage or parental, a part and parcel of our tradition, and often times the bride is still in her puberty stage upon marriage. This artwork was inspired by my parents wedding where my mother, young at 17, was asked to come home from Davao to attend a party. Little did she know that that party was the preparation for her marriage to a man (my father) 20 years her senior, to her frustration and shock. She had a Cebuano boyfriend. When they decided to elope that night of her arrival, she was caught about to jump from the second story window of the house. At the same time, a second family also came to ask her hand for marriage, this time a nephew of my father who was also groomed to take my mother's hand in marriage. This conflict would haunt our family's relationships for decades. The wedding lasted for a week.
I am posting here Teng's article from his blog site about traditional marriage and its complex and often complicated processes and undertakings for better understanding of the theme of his film and my artwork:
I still prefer the traditional Maguindanaon wedding. The royal weddings are particularly tedious because there is an age-old protocol to follow.
The process leading to the wedding of members of the aristocracy starts with pangengedung, in which the groom's family, or kamaman, checks if the bride is not yet engaged or doesn’t have other suitors. Her bantingan, honor status, as well as her family's maratabat, or royal lineage, are also scrutinized. This is done so that both parties will have a common understanding of the families that will soon be joined in royal matrimony.
Once a preliminary understanding has been reached, the actual salangguni or betrothal takes place. The kamaman conducts a procession to the bride's family with the highest-ranking member of the family leading the procession. The groom-to-be declares his intention to marry through mediators, usually family elders, who explore the possibility of setting the dowry and the details of the wedding.
If both parties reach an agreement, the tatas, symbol of agreement, traditionally a Maguindanaon sword, or kris, is given by the groom's mediator to the bride’s family, the kababayan. Henceforth, the groom- and bride-to-be are considered engaged. The bride-to-be is prohibited to accept suitors and the groom-to-be is not permitted to court other women. In the succeeding months after the salangguni, the bride-to-be is kept from public view and is expected to remain in a room called limbunan where she will be prepared for the wedding day. Part of the preparation is the application of pinilo, a traditional powder made of pounded rice, all over her body by a retinue of ladies-in-waiting. This period usually takes three months.
Palabunibuniyan, merriment, accompanied by a kulintang ensemble and dayunday, song duel, begins the long wedding celebration. The whole place is then embellished with traditional decoration such as pandala, flags; sambulayang, three-tailed banner representing the royal houses; bagiyuntay, big tussled umbrella; ubol-ubol, small tussled umbrella; pamanay, flaglets; ulol, ceiling décor; and lalansay, wall decor.
Days before the wedding, the kamaman delivers the igan –a traditional wedding bed— to the bride's house.
On the morning of the wedding (sometimes a few days earlier), the damak, food placed on ornamented platters, is brought to the bride's house. It is very important to know the royal protocol in delivering the damak, taking into consideration the proper arrangement of the food items. Traditionally, the bride's family can call off the wedding if the damak is not arranged in the proper order.
While the groom is being dressed up, the female relatives of the groom proceed to the bride's house to help her in the last few preparations. But before they could see her, a bungka sa bilik has to be paid. Then the groom's entourage marches to the bride's house. Upon reaching the house, the groom's representative has to pay a token, the lenan, before the groom can enter the bride's house. An elderly woman waits at the door of the bride’s room holding a handkerchief with its tip tied to a gold ring. The woman tosses the end of the handkerchief into the air for the groom to catch. He is given three chances to catch the ring before he could fetch his bride.
In most instances, the groom and bride ride a platform carriage, or usungan, in a traditional parade that will bring them to the wedding ceremony, followed by an entourage carrying family heirlooms. Take note. No coin bearers or flower girls.
In the wedding ceremony, or kawing, the groom sits away from the bride. An imam takes his right hand and places it against the hand of the wali, the bride's representative. The groom's family places a pillow on the foot of the groom and the wali. The groom then gives the imam a white handkerchief, which he puts over the clutched hands. The groom takes his vow. After he accepts the vow, the public is then asked thrice if the ceremony should continue. The public is expected to say, “Oay” (yes). Then the imam delivers the sermon and solemnizes the ceremony. After which, the groom encircles the bride three times and places his thumb on the bride's forehead.
The newlyweds partake in the pundutan, a traditional meal that signifies the start of their married life.
