Maria

****

Reviewed by: Andrew Robertson

Maria
"There are smaller details of movement and interaction that illuminate as clearly as the brightness and noise of Habac's film."

Maria opens with a raucous varicoloured squabbling, a blast of noise and shade and conflict, a single room filled with Mar- and Dan- names, all being added to a family tree for a project. Paper, and glue, and blood thicker than water.

Populous too, and growing. In just a few minutes, indeed, from its opening shot at an unusual angle, Jaime Habac Jr's film is immediately evocative, enthralling.

A family drama unfolds, but containing as it does so many elements it feels almost wasteful to try to list them. A recipe does not taste the same as soup, and this is a rich mixture. There are gender, religious, and familial politics, but even as large themes are thrown around there are smaller details of movement and interaction that illuminate as clearly as the brightness and noise of Habac's film.

Selected for special mention by the International Award Jury at 2017's Glasgow Short Film Festival, it's visually striking, with excellent work in sound. The threads of familial tension are woven into something that reveals as it unfurls.

Reviewed on: 20 Mar 2017
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When the whole family confronts her 14-year-old daughter of a suspected pregnancy, a 50-year-old woman gives birth to her 22nd child.

Director: Jaime Jr Habac

Year: 2016

Runtime: 11 minutes

Country: Philippines

Festivals:

GSFF 2017

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