Among the 10 entries in the 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), only Green Bones has the nerve to declare mightily that “it is a movie of hope and redemption.” All the others mouth in their publicity yarn something about the immense thrill their entries will make the viewers experience inside the movie house.
Green Bones is not a religious film despite its promise of “redemption.” Judging from its teasers and trailers, the movie doesn’t seem to have a single scene showing any character praying to God or talking about their faith in God that can free them from whatever unfavorable circumstances they have fallen into.
Green Bones is largely a prison film, though all its publicity and promo seem to deliberately avoid using the word “prisoner” and instead refer to jailed characters as “persons deprived of liberty” or PDLs.
By now, you must have read, heard, or watched that the movie’s title refers to bones that literally turn up green after their owners had been cremated. It is said that only people cremated and known to be good most of their lives will produce green bones. It is just a superstitious belief.
The stunningly goodlooking actors Dennis Trillo and Ruru Madrid topbill the film. The former portrays a PDL and the latter the warden in the jail house where Trillo’s character has been incarcerated for some years and is about to be paroled. The warden is against the particular prisoner to be for some mysterious reason.
As part, most likely, of GMA Pictures’ publicity strategies, it is not revealed who among the narrative’s character (or characters) dies, gets cremated, and the remains yield some green bones. Such yielding is rare but has been noted by scientists as an event that has nothing to do with the virtues of the cremated. Good old Google has many entries why some bones turn green soon after cremation and most others don’t.
Trillo’s character is described in the film’s publicity mill as a “hardened criminal” whose imprisonment in the narrative is due to his killing of his own sister and the daughter of that sister.
On the other hand, the publicity mill also have it that Madrid’s character of being practically obsessed with the behavior and scheduled freedom of Trillo’s character is due to Madrid’s character reeling from a trauma caused by the violent but senseless death of his own sister.
The film has about a dozen characters portrayed by seasoned actors that include Alessandra de Rossi and Iza Calzado. Any of those characters could be cremated in the storyline and one of the remains may yield green bones.
Judging from the teasers and trailers, Green Bones has many gruesome scenes and this is shocking coming from director Zig Dulay whose movies are notable for their scenes of serenity in the provinces and in the boondocks. Green Bones actually has a provincial setting even for its bloody and gruesome scenes. You wouldn’t think Green Bones is helmed by the same person who directed the placid and poetic Fireflies, which won Best Picture and Best Director in last year’s MMFF.
But we do wish Green Bones to have scenes showing the characters communicating with God, not necessarily in the formal religious way, as a habit for seeking guidance and enlightenment from a Higher Power, Divine Spirit, Infinite Intelligence, or The Force.
Producers, scriptwriters, and directors seem to deliberately avoid scenes that are obviously part of religious practice. This MMFF’s Isang Himala is an exception. But we are not asking for religious films. We’re seeking out films that factor in spirituality not manifested in venues and times designated as “worship rites.” We’re looking for and awaiting films that show that a relationship and communication with the Higher Power will enable people to be immersed in day-to-day life more comfortably, more harmoniously, and more peacefully and honestly productive. Religious doctrines could get in the way for a mainly positive and happy life. Religious doctrines can be divisible.
The producers and crafters of Green Bones have to promise the film to be one of “hope and redemption” so as not to discourage people from watching it due to its violent scenes and criminal characters. By the way, one of the film’s co-producers is Brightburn Entertainment, a company founded just months ago by Trillo and his actor wife Jennylyn Mercado. Green Bones is their first involvement as producers. Part of their objectives is to produce films on their own, not in partnership with well-established ones. And those films don’t have to star them. They are willing to be off-camera all the time for the company’s future projects.