Brillante Mendoza’s ‘Mindanao’

MA. ISABEL ONGPIN

“MINDANAO,” Brillante Mendoza’s new film, is not only worth seeing for its beautiful cinematography and hauntingly appropriate music, but also because it is a paean to the human spirit. In particular, to the Filipinos of Mindanao, the Philippines’ largest island, which is always mentioned with a sense of gloom and doom, conflict and violence, and most of all, poverty.