Manila in the Claws of Light (Maynila, sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag) (1975)

For years, cinema has tried to depict the terrible social injustice of poverty, with numerous films seeking to portray the humanity of the poor in our society.   Many of these movies heroically try to bring into light empathy for the impoverished.   In the 1970’s the Philippines was a third world, corrupt country run by a cruel dictatorship.   In a country like that, not only does poverty run rampant, but its effects are more horrifying, as in these countries a person could easily die from starvation.        With his movie, “Manila in the Claws of Light”, Lino Brocka tackles this topic seen through the eyes of the personal tragedy of one young man.  

Julio Madiaga (Rafael Roco Jr in his film debut) is a young man living in a remote and quaint fishing village.   He grew up with Ligaya (Hilda Koronel), who became the love of his life.     One terrible day, an apparent social worker from Manila visits the village and convinces Ligaya’s mother that she should allow her daughter to be escorted to Manila where she will be given an education and a better life. When a year had gone by, it was already over 6 months since anyone heard from Ligaya. A worried Julio takes all his saved earnings to Manila in a desperate search for his lost love.   Once in Manila, he is robbed of all his money and is forced to work at a construction site.   The money he earns from the torturous work is barely enough for food.   When the construction job ends, he lowers himself further, working as a male prostitute in the thriving sex trade of the Manila gay community.    He eventually discovers that Ligaya was brought to Malina to be a prostitute herself, having ended up as an imprisoned and kept woman to a Chinese businessman who even fathers her a child.    Julio vows to save her.  

By basing his movie on an ill-fated romance in the vein of Romeo and Juliet, Brocka has developed a stirring story about the plight of the poor, easily expendable working class of Manila.   The Marco-led Philippines of the 1970s exploited the desperate poor working class labor force that thrived during a form of capitalism that completely ignored social issues, making the lives of the working class not much different from slavery.   If one did not make money, one died of starvation.  In addition, the authorities worked on a bribery system that left countless people disenfranchised without protection.   Julio’s construction team foreman keeps two thirds of the salary to himself and fires anyone who complains.    The work itself is not only backbreaking, but also unsafe and dangerous.    There is absolutely zero attention paid to safety, as in one unforgettable scene, an unusually positive co-worker of Julio falls to his death in a work accident.   He was in the middle of singing a song to raise everyone’s morale when the accident took place.  One of the many crushing blows on hope that will occur throughout the movie.

Brocka does not hold back in the desperate message of his story, as the movie gives a penetrating depiction of not only the abuse of low-class labor, but also the sex industry of Manila.   Sleeping on the city boardwalk, Julio is picked up by a friendly man who takes him back to a nice apartment and serves him a good meal.    While staying overnight with his newfound friend, Julio discovers what his new friend does for a living and is convinced to give it a try before realizing that the gay sex trade demands too much for even him.  

What I found interesting in the movie was how selflessness would shine within the poor people shown.   Julio always found someone who was willing to share some of the pittance that they had to help him survive.    There was always a male friend who helped Julio.  Whether at the construction site, the red-light district or in the final section of the movie, in Chinatown, where Julio finally finds Ligaya.    This humanity is tied to compassion and love, as many people he comes across become moved by his story of lost love and atonement.  He, in turn, is moved by the sad predicaments of his new friends, which quite often were even more tragic than his.  

One of the striking aspects of the movie is its almost picturesque depictions of the lower side of Manila.  There are the shanty town waterfront slums, the harsh, unforgiving construction site, the gay-district and a colorful Chinatown found in the more affluent areas of the city.   All are given a very stylized view within the sad story.  In addition, Julio tends to daydream about his former life in the fishing village and his idealized love for Ligaya.  These memories will come to him when he is at his lowest and give him strength to continue.   A strength that will eventually turn into deep anger.  Brocka never holds anything back as he is telling a story that can’t possibly have a happy end.    This is a serious film on a serious subject, and I found myself captivated by its different cruel world.  

“Manila in the Claws of Light” is a brilliant piece of filmmaking that brings to light the unbearable consequences of heartless policies towards those who have no voice.    It is a superb piece of cinema and one of the best portrayals of poverty coming from a country that is no stranger to human suffering.  

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen Seele auf) (1974)

Sometimes great art, and great movies, are created on a whim or by accident.   Rainer Werner Fassbinder was in between two major movie productions and in a relationship with El Hedi ben Salem, when he quickly wrote and directed a story primarily influenced by his love for ben Salem, and one of his favorite movies made by Douglas Sirk (All that Heaven Allows).  Sirk’s movie, about an attractive late 40sh housewife’s affair with her young Gardener was taken to its edge by Fassbinder with his “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul” by making the housewife into a 60 something unattractive cleaning lady and the gardener into a 30 something dark skinned Muslim mechanic.   The result does not only have something to say about racism and prejudice but is one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever seen. 

The movie takes place in Berlin and in the same period that the Munich Olympics Massacre occurred.   Fassbinder used this time-period to explain the xenophobia concerning Muslims that existed in Germany at the time.    Emmi (Brigitte Mira) is an older cleaning lady who walks into the local Arab bar to get out of the heavy rain outside.   She orders a cola and the bar owner, who is one of those heavily made-up middle eastern large bosom types, goads her regular customers to ask Emmi to dance.   Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) takes her up on the wager, and while dancing with Emmi, finds her to be a very kind and caring person.   He will then offer to escort her home, where she invites him to come up until it stops raining.  He eventually ends up staying overnight, and their relationship quickly moves forward into a fast civilian marriage.   The movie builds on this unlikely romance in an honest and very open manner, while at the same time showcases how the outside world looks down upon their honest relationship with distain.  

Ali is not even the mechanic’s real name, but rather a generic reference to a dark-skinned foreign worker in Germany at the time.   His real name is too long for most Germans to remember, so they just call their Arab laborers Ali, which further enhances the dehumanization of these same workers.    Emmi immerses herself into Ali’s heart, and it is the way she does this that is the soul of the movie.   Ali will later tell her that since he arrived in Germany, she is the only person who has expressed an interest in him, and it is that which attracts him to her.   In addition, the two main characters feel frowned upon by Berlin society.  Emmi because she is a cleaning lady and Ali because he is a dark-skinned foreign worker.   She shyly states that she is looked down upon because of her line of work, while he more bluntly states that the Germans look at him like a dog that they are the master of.   Considering German history and its efforts to reform, this clear statement of fact from a 1970s Germany showed me that there was still a lot more left to be done on that front.    It is the judgmental society that initially draws both to each other while their need for warmth and kindness keeps them together.

One of the delights of this movie is how it shows racism and prejudice to be such a weak and unsustainable emotion.   When Emmi and Ali first become a couple, her neighbors try to have Ali expelled from their building for being unclean, even though he is probably the cleanest person in the building (Emmi makes a point of telling them that he takes a shower every day).    The local grocer refuses to serve Ali claiming he does not understand his German, Emmi’s co-workers ostracize her at work, and in probably the best scene of the movie, Emmi’s grown children cut themselves off from their mother in protest of the marriage.    The scenes of the neighbor’s gossiping and plotting against the couple hark back to Sirk’s movie as well.    It is, however, the magnificent and somewhat funny scene where Emmi informs her children about the marriage that is not only the movie’s greatest homage to Douglas Sirk, but also my favorite scene in the movie.  The look on each sibling’s face once Ali appears from the bedroom dressed in a suite is priceless.   One of the sons kicks in the TV in anger.  In Sirk’s movie, the children, after forcing their mother to break up with the gardener, buy her a new TV which symbolized her entrapment into misery.    Here the TV is kicked in and broken, because in Fassbinder’s version, Emmi will not listen to her children and chooses happiness over misery.  

Fassbinder in his movie also brilliantly shows how practicality and life supersedes most biases in life.   Emmi’s neighbor needs the strong young man in the building (Ali) to help them move furniture and other heavy items, the grocer needs Emmi’s business, her colleagues need her to gang up on the younger foreign laborer (an interesting point is that, for acceptability, Emmi agrees to treat this new colleague as badly as she was being treated), and her eldest son pays for the broken TV because he needs Emmi to babysit his children.     Simply put, life overcomes stupidity and prejudice.   It is this message that Fassbinder lays out without any melodrama or exaggerations.  The movie shows life as it is.  People overcome prejudice through practicality and need.

If all this movie did was deal with social issues, then it would have been interesting, but within the heart of this small but significant film is a love story.   On the outside, there is nothing more different in appearance than Emmi and Ali, and their upbringing as well as culture could not be more separate in nature.   Yet it is within their humanity that they find each other.   To Fassbinder’s credit, his portrayal of their love is not overly passionate, nor is it akin to a fairy tale.   It is their quiet honesty that succeeds in breaking through all the formidable obstacles to their love.   When Ali confesses to Emmi that he slept with another woman, she tells him she does not care and only wants them to be kind to each other.  That is such a beautiful attitude to love, and I was not surprised that Ali then responded that he did not want another woman and only loved her.    

When a movie can make you believe that true love is possible for a 60-year-old Polish/German woman and a 30-year-old Moroccan, it is telling you that love is possible for everyone.  “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul” may be a small film, but it has a giant heart and a pleasure to behold.