One of the most critical objectives of cinema is to interrogate the current state of society and even a nation as a whole. Pepe Diokno’s 2010 film, Engkwentro clearly exhibits such aim to criticize not only the social or economic but also the political foundation of poverty that currently infiltrates the Philippines.

         Even from the start, the tone and context of the film was being established as the song “Bagong Lipunan” was played over a sequence of footages and photos from the Martial Law era. As it strives to censure the state-sponsored extra judicial killings on Davao City amidst the promise of the then Mayor, now President Rodrigo Duterte of building a safer and a more secure society, the film associated such to late Ferdinand Marcos’ regime to achieve liberation of the Filipino people through his vision of the New Society but in reality, was infused with human rights violation and abuse of power. This parallelism indicates that the war on drugs on the present day could lead similar to what the country experienced during martial law and that the promise of peace is actually paid by numerous counts of violence.

         Despite focusing on poverty, Engkwentro’s depiction of poverty is dissimilar from other independent films which were noted as poverty porn that exploits the condition of the poor to incite audience fascination (Tu 2014). As the story centers on Richard, his brother Raymond, and his run from the City Death Squad (CDS), the film exhibits the oppression of the state that made the marginalized communities to remain in the margins of society. Instead of giving them assistance that they needed, poor communities were treated as scrap and in this setting, were being assassinated without due process of law. The local government concentrated on depleting the number of drug-related offenses through murdering the suspects without regard on other or even more crucial issues such as the lack of education, unemployment, prostitution and gang wars which were all exhibited in the film. Some films presents the poor as self-ruling individuals and that their illusion of choice – to whether or not try to get an education, find jobs, or commit crimes – should be given proper consequences. That the poor remains impoverished because they chose to commit illegal acts than to become a contributing part of society. Engkwentro instead showed that slum dwellers are trapped in a system of social inequalities that made such crimes as their means of survival. The poor are not given access to education and are not given opportunities for employment that such crimes became part of their lifestyle. Richard and Reymond became part of gangs, both of them and even their father due to lack of job, sold illegal drugs and firearms, all for the sake of surviving – that they are even willing to kill for not only them, but their family as well just to survive. Moreover, the constant use of the Mayor’s voiceover about the war on drugs and “cleaning” the city throughout the film accentuated this political ground of poverty. Although the Mayor was not seen, his authority was still discerned.

         These messages were conveyed throughout the film with the help of its audio and visual elements. As it uses only one, and not a multitude of different angles per scene, on eye-level, the audience were positioned in a way as if they are experiencing the acts alongside the characters. The confinement of space in the area were materialized and the feeling of never-ending slums while the characters were wandering around and turning all over the place heightened the haziness of the film’s atmosphere. Its impression, in addition, of a one continuous take traverses restlessness and agitation the marginalized are experiencing to the audience. Together with a dim lighting especially on the scene where gang members were chasing their enemies at night, the lack of light substantiated the lack of clarity and hope for the people living in poverty. These elements also made Engkwentro a clear independent film that defies Hollywood-patterned cinema that utilizes different and steady camera angles and artificial lighting set-ups.

         The final scene not only actuates the brutal endpoint of the poor given the current societal and political state but also attempts to interrogate the audience. With the sudden shift of the camera angle, the audience is forced to see the entire murder of Richard and Raymond. This, to disturb them and eventually make them realize that they are watching these killings happening in reality and should act on it rather than letting these state atrocities happen before their eyes. Despite being produced on 2009, this film became more relevant nowadays as these butchery of lower-class suspected criminals emerged nationwide. Those in the margins of society doesn’t need only sympathy but a real change to the prevailing sociopolitical conditions. The challenge now is to relay the message to a larger audience and for filmmakers to recognize the role of films in interrogating the mass on what is happening on the country.

 References

Guieb, Eulalio. 2009. ‘Engkwentro’: Like most  Pinoy indie films, it is about poverty; unlike most Pinoy indie films, it  does not feast on poverty.

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