AN Ilonggo film has brought pride to the Philippines in the international scene. Kevin Piamonte’s short film Baboy Talunon (Wild Boar) recently won the Best International Short Film Award at Uruvatti International Film Festival in India.
“Getting selected to a film festival is an honor already. It’s like panalo ka na rin. But to win the Best International Short Film award, panalo sa panalo ‘yun,” said Piamonte, the film’s director.
“It makes us proud to be Filipinos as well as to be Ilonggos,” he added.
Reflecting on the recent senseless killing of Indigenous People in the Philippines, the film based on the Habulan short story by Ferdinand Pisigan Jarin is about a young boy who lives with his parents in the forest. The young boy has been trained by his father how to defend himself if attacked by a wild boar.
One night the young boy witnesses his parents being shot dead by the military. He runs. A wild chase takes place through the forest. And when the boy thinks that he has to defend himself against this wild boar of a military, he is confronted with the truth that perhaps he is also a wild boar.
“In my film, we asked how many more will fall. In the time of war, even small ones even the ones that we are in, especially in the state of the government that we are in, nobody is going to win, as long as we do not understand each other, walang respeto for each other, as long as we do not uphold human rights, we are all going to lose in the end that is the message of Baboy Talunon,” Piamonte stressed.
Meanwhile, Jarin mentioned that he was inspired by a news story he read in Panay News about the Tumandoks.
“Originally na-disturb lang naman ako sa news article before New year, ‘yung mga Tumandoks na nare-red tag. Disturb na disturb ako doon, hindi ako pinatulog, so bigla akong nag-conceptualize,” he shared.
“Nung nag-propose ako (sa production team). Bigla akong kinabahan baka hindi kagatin ito. Medyo grim eh at medyo political, pero nagulat ako nagustuhan nila ang concept kasi napapanahon nga naman,” Jardin went on.
The film, which stars Aljon Flores, Ron Matthews Espinosa, GC Castro, and Rhea Molicara-Sevilla, was filmed at the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) in Miag-ao, Iloilo, with the assistance of a Film Development Council of the Philippines-certified safety inspector.
According to producer Robert Rodriguez, the crew began shooting on February 12, just before Valentine’s Day this year.
“Because this is a small budget shoot, we finished in maybe four days, including the re-shoots. Kasi, the longer the shooting days, the more expensive the production will be,” said Rodriguez.
Baboy Talunon was produced through funding support from the Creative Work Funding Window of the UPV Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension./PN
