Sisa: Brilliantly Dark

One movie. That’s my monumental achievement every year.  I specialize in waiting for a movie I can sit through and feast on for two+ hours.

Before the pandemic, I’d binge at the Cinemalaya every year. Now, because I could no longer pry myself from reading and writing books in my timeworn shorts, I have become a cinematic minimalist. I only lock my orbs on one film per annum.

“Sisa,” written and directed by Jun Robles Lana, was my perfect  (can there be a more superlative term?) choice this year. It is described as historical thriller, but I’d rather call it historical fiction, because it takes liberties with facts in a creatively crafted narrative. 

Brilliantly dark. I am using this oxymoron because the movie combines high-intensity brightness and skill with darkness and mystery at a bleak time in our nation’s history. It is vivid while at the same time gloomy.  

Sisa, the character, originates from Jose Rizal’s 19th-century novel Noli Me Tangere.  She is a tragic heroine, who lost her sanity after being a victim of extreme abuse, poverty, and injustice under the Spanish colonial rule.

Sisa, the film, re-imagines the original Sisa and places her in a different historical context to dramatize resilience and courage.  Set during the final, brutal days of the Philippine-American War (around 1902), the film is dark, literally (cinematography) and figuratively (screenplay).  The plot revolves around a woman who feigns madness for a purpose in a community of women imprisoned in an American concentration camp. 

There had been movies depicting the Sisa in Jose Rizal’s novel, but this is the first time that Sisa is presented out-of-the-box.  

The power cast (Hilda Koronel, Eugene Domingo, Jennica Garcia, Tanya Gomez, Barbara Miguel,  Romnick Sarmenta, etc.) radiates with brilliance, as each actor seems bespoke for his/her role, fitting each character’s nuances with believable precision. 

Constantly dark, the lighting depicts fear, grief, and tension. Sisa's character is dark because she represents the ugly truth of colonial times—innocence crushed by betrayal.

The brilliance lies in how this dark setting could be written in such an unexpected manner that includes current issues about mental health, justice, and women's rights in the Philippines (shown in Philippine theaters in March, Women’s month). 

It is a given that the film won Best Screenplay at the 46th Fantasporto International Film Festival in Portugal in early 2026.

In sum, Lana’s brilliantly dark Sisa is also a paradox of intense light in deep shadow. No wonder it marks a significant international achievement for Philippine cinema.

(My friend G captured me gushing even after everyone had left the theater, where, for two hours, I annihilated my bag of popcorn without blinking.)