ULTIMO
- Torino International Film Festival
- Valiente Award,
- La Palma International Digital Film Festival
- Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (shortfilm version)
- Underdox Documentary & Experimental Film Festival, Germany.
A tribute-cum-reformulation-in-film of Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal's poem "Mi Ultimo Adios," Khavn's "Ultimo: Different Ways of Killing a National Hero" explores identity and nationhood as viewed through the lens of a truly post-colonial individual. Ultimo is a 90-minute black-and-white silent film, with scenes from the director's meanderings in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) interspersed with lines from Rizal's poem, which was written a day before the hero's execution in 1896. Waiting, ambivalence, and re-membering —-- themes usually tackled in literature and criticism —-- are investigated through a series of images: the mundane elevated to the affective through a sensibility that does not shy away from pushing the boundaries of art. This version is scored by a post-kundiman duet of guitar and banduria.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT:
In 2005, the organizers of the La Palma International Digital Film Festival posted a challenge to the filmmakers in attendance: create a short film within the span of the festival. I finished twelve. The following year, I decided to challenge myself further: I tried to make a full-length film within the week of the festival. This is the result. At first I was just shooting randomly, but then later, like what happens in all art, the scenes started to weave themselves into meaning. My stay in La Palma, and my constant exposure to all sorts of cultures, had brought to me a certain sense of ambivalence regarding my identity as a Filipino filmmaker. Here I was, drinking, laughing, making friends with the same people who have historically been the source of a lot of my country's woes. I was torn between two ideas: remembering as an act of asserting identity, and engaging my fellow man in the here and now. People are people, I guess. I've finished the film, but still it wasn't able to ease much of this ambivalence. I just hope that I've fleshed out at least a little of it here.
CREDITS
- Director: Khavn Producer: Khavn
- Screenplay: Khavn, Jose Rizal
- Composer: Junji Lerma
- Editor: Lawrence S. Ang
- Actors: Teresa Lorenzo, Celia Blanco,...
- Production Company: Filmless
- Films Shot on location in La Palma, Spain, courtesy of Festivalito 2006.