Transformative power of one act of human kindness insightfully vivified
Last June 12, we attended the premiere of Doy del Mundo’s second feature film (after top Cinemalaya winner, “Pepot Artista”), “Paglipad ng Anghel”—and were moved by the experience. In a season dominated by action-adventure, fantasy and sci-fi blockbusters and rom-coms, the ace writer-director “dared” to tell the small but significant tale about an “ordinary” man (Sid Lucero) who performs one amazing act of kindness—and proceeds to grow a pair of angel wings!
Of course, most people would dismiss the “impossible” phenomenon as the filmmaker’s well-intentioned but addled fantasy. In an epoch dominated by the devil and his impious imps, an angel suddenly flapping his anachronistic wings in our midst is a fantasticating irrelevance—or, is it?
In Doy’s “little” film, funded by the One La Salle Scholarship Drive to help raise funds for its ambitious and even visionary scholarship program, our young protagonist is no angel at all, just a good person who works behind the scenes in the TV trade.
The choice of television as the story’s setting is no accident, because in some people’s view, it is the modern world’s version of the Devil’s workshop.
Old beggar
In any case, one “ordinary” day, Sid’s character decides to help an old beggar when she faints in his arms, by taking her to a hospice for the poor and dying. The beggar (Anita Linda) expires, but Sid feels good, because she at least died in spiritual comfort and dignity.
The story, which initially sounds highly improbable, was in fact inspired by something that Doy’s fellow Manunuri, Manny Pichel, once did. Manny’s account moved Doy so much that it inspired him to write a screenplay in the late ’90s.
It’s taken more than 10 years for the script to end up as a finished film (which will initially be shown on different De La Salle campuses nationwide), but it’s worth the time, effort and money spent on it.
Instructively, when Sid’s wings begin to grow on his shoulder blades, he resists the angelic “elevation,” because it disrupts his life in a big way and makes him the target of many nasty people who either want to “shame” him into irreligiosity, or make money from his resulting healing prowess.
At times, he regards his wings not as a blessing, but as a curse, and begs for them and the weighty responsibility they entail to be lifted from his shoulders.
Dilemma
Thus does the film dramatize the dilemma of the good person in today’s world, which in some ways is inimical to goodness. In meaningful contrast, the script suggests the existence of another “hidden” angel—who welcomes the special gift instead of skittishly rejecting it.
Thus is the viewer presented with differing and sometimes even contradictory choices, and as we watch the movie, its relevance to our own “un-angelic” lives gains force and empathetic pertinence.
It is to the film’s credit that it’s made its “irrelevant” themes acutely relevant to the lives its viewers lead today. That’s no mean feat, because the entertainment universe teems with more “exciting” and “sexy” passions and distractions.
But, the production succeeds in reminding us that man should not live by fun and games alone—and that one shining act of angelic kindness should inspire many others.
—When do we start growing our own spiritual wings?
