Cinemalaya 2024’s closing film ‘Bona’ sheds light on the perils of obsession

Cover National Artist for Film Nora Aunor starred in and produced this remarkable 1980 film ‘Bona’ by National Artist Lino Brocka, which was screened at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. This year marks the film’s rebirth after being restored and re-screened at the Cannes. It comes home to the Philippines this August 2024 as closing film of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival’s 20th edition (Photo: Nora Cabaltera Villamayor aka Nora Aunor, NV Productions / Carlotta Films)

National Artist for Film Nora Aunor starred in and produced this remarkable 1980 film ‘Bona’ by National Artist Lino Brocka, which was screened at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. This year marks the film’s rebirth after being restored and re-screened at the Cannes. It comes home to the Philippines this August 2024 as closing film of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival’s 20th edition (Photo: Nora Cabaltera Villamayor aka Nora Aunor, NV Productions / Carlotta Films)

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Believed to have been lost forever, ‘Bona’—National Artist Lino Brocka’s second entry to the Cannes Film Festival—has been finally restored for a new generation of cineastes to appreciate

Ever since Cinemalaya Foundation, Inc announced its selection for this year’s closing film, film lovers and critics alike rejoiced for the homecoming of the lost masterpiece by National Artist Lino Brocka.

Bona, a 1980 film entry to the 6th Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), was recently restored to its former glory and remastered by Carlotta Films and Kani Releasing in time for its triumphant return to the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, in which it was screened in 1981 at the Directors’ Fortnight section. Bona’s journey to resurgence began in 2017 when University of Illinois professor and film historian Jose B Capino rediscovered the original negatives while researching and interviewing people for his book on Brocka.

Since 2023, the home video label Kani, which distributes restored classic films, and French film distribution company Carlotta Films have embarked on the daunting endeavour of restoring Bona. Using the original 35mm image at Cité de Mémoire laboratory in Paris, France and the negatives preserved by LTC Patrimoine for the sound restoration by LE Diapason, Bona made its way to Salle Buñuel at the Cannes Film Festival’s Classics section.

Although the film lost to the star-studded drama Taga sa Panahon by Augusto Buenaventura in the 1980 MMFF, Bona received praise and was deemed one of the most iconic Filipino films. Many factors can support this. Firstly, it stars Nora Aunor, the Philippine entertainment scene’s “Superstar”, whose body of work ranges from music and television to movie industries. Revered for her acting prowess, she was conferred as a National Artist in 2022 after much controversy about her personal life. Still, she was unbeatable and incomparable in the eyes of critics, fans, and moviegoers. Secondly, the film was directed by a National Artist who received local and international recognition throughout his career and even beyond his life. Tackling political and social ills and defying formulaic methods in filmmaking, Brocka re-introduced realism and escapism in cinema with grit, danger, and intensity. Together with National Artists Ishmael Bernal and Marilou Diaz-Abaya, as well as other filmmakers of the Seventies and Eighties, they brought upon the so-called Second Golden Age of Philippine Cinema.