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Class lass
A young woman struggles to teach her Filipino students while fighting corrupt school officials, guerrilla war dangers and apathetic parents in the discouraging yet inspiring "Small Voices."
By DAVID N. BUTTERWORTH
Offoffoff.com
From the moment she arrives at Malawig, a remote, impoverished village a bus ride away from the bustling Philippines capital of Manila, Melinda Santiago realizes she has her work cut out for her. A young and optimistic graduate of Manila's City University whose family wishes her to repatriate to America where the real opportunities are, Melinda is not exactly prepared to meet the many challenges of her new position, that of elementary school teacher.
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| SMALL VOICES | Original title: Mga Munting Tinig.
Directed by: Gil Portes.
Written by: Adolfo Alix Jr., Gil Portes, Senedy Que.
Cast: Alessandra de Rossi, Dexter Doria, Gina Alajar, Amy Austria, Bryan Homecillo, Pierro Rodriguez.
In Tagalog with English subtitles.
Related links: Official site | All of David N. Butterworth's reviews at Rotten Tomatoes |
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These challenges appear in many forms — an unscrupulous principal (Mrs. Pantalan) who sells ice candy to the students simply to stuff her own pockets, a motorcycle-riding "Bombay" (Indian merchant) who charges 10 percent for cash advances on delayed teacher's paychecks, and aggressively passive parents who believe that only the rich can afford to dream, insisting that their sons and daughters would do better to work the fields or provide domestic help rather than to secure an education.
And then, of course, there is the monsoon season, bringing torrential rains that threaten to destroy the school's meager supply of schoolbooks, lesson plans, and other dwindling resources.
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| | For his lead, Portes has chosen Alessandra De Rossi and he has chosen well. She's delightful in the role of the na•ve young woman who faces cultural obstacles at every turn. |
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Melinda goes about her work with daily diligence, though, always having a smile, a kind word for her neatly uniformed charges. But her battles against apathy, corruption, and contempt are constant, further hindered by the volatile political climate in which fathers and sons are constantly recruited to join guerrilla forces fighting in the mountains.
When a funding opportunity in the form of a regional singing contest presents itself to Melinda, the idealistic teacher must smartly juggle uncooperative school administrators, confrontational parents, and the torn children themselves in order to let their small voices be heard.
Gil M. Portes's simple, sincere "Small Voices" ("Mga Munting Tinig") offers a rare insight into a culture we rarely see depicted on film. It applauds the fight of educators in an environment that is oftentimes in direct opposition to the basic tenets of learning. Drawing from his own experiences, Portes fashions his film with light, delicate touches, deliberating on Melinda's daily struggle with a viewpoint that is refreshingly unaffected by Western influences. (This might make the film a little too unsophisticated for some.)
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For his lead, Portes has chosen Alessandra De Rossi and he has chosen well. She's delightful in the role of the na•ve young woman who faces cultural obstacles at every turn. De Rossi has a calm strength about her that's lovely to witness. Sometimes her reactions seem a little too immodest, such as when she acts surprised or shocked, but for the most part she's efficient and convincing, especially in the film's closing contest scenes.
There's an innocent, lyrical quality to the film and it's hard not to be charmed by it. Portes, who lives in New York, has made some 25 feature films in his native Philippines yet in "Small Voices" he's guilty of a few fledgling errors — there's a brief, slow-motion sequence, for example, that seems out of place and for much of the time the film feels a little too deliberate in its predictable setup and character observations. The subtitling, too, is poor, with several stretches indecipherable against the whitened images the director has so carefully constructed.
But "Small Voices," much like its central character Melinda, rises above these challenges to emerge as a euphoric affirmation of the power of change, teaching us that big dreams and the desire to follow them often come in small packages.
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NOVEMBER 1, 2003
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Reader comments on Small Voices:
grabe from christian bables, Jan 21, 2006
comment from precious, Jan 31, 2006
tinig from renz castro-millare, Dec 13, 2006
hello from lubster, Aug 1, 2008
bravo from dara, Nov 17, 2008
Wow from Alvaro Laureano, Mar 20, 2011
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