Bona
A fierce work of quasi-neorealist melodrama that melds pop cinema instincts and political indignation, Lino Brocka’s 1980 feature endures as a lively, searing parable on the plight of Filipino women under the Marcos dictatorship.
A fierce work of quasi-neorealist melodrama that melds pop cinema instincts and political indignation, Lino Brocka’s 1980 feature endures as a lively, searing parable on the plight of Filipino women under the Marcos dictatorship. The great Nora Aunor stars as the titular heroine who falls for a womanizing B-movie actor (Phillip Salvador) and abandons her abusive bourgeois family to shack up with the philandering lumpenprole thespian. But Bona quickly finds herself forced into a role both more servile and more maternal than strictly amorous, and tensions between the two swell to an astounding, violent crescendo. This moving mid-career film encapsulates the intelligence and sensitivity of Brocka’s influential work. A Kani Releasing release.
In 2023, Carlotta Films and Kani Releasing acquired the rights to the film from its producer and actor, National Artist of the Philippines Nora Aunor. Bona has been scanned, restored, and color graded in 4K, from its original 35mm camera and sound negative reels, at Cité de Mémoire in Paris, France. The sound restoration was handled by L.E. Diapason.
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