Bona (4K Restoration)
January 10, 2025
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.
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Friday, January 10, 2025
A major rediscovery and a true must-see, Bona is a key work of Filipino cinema and a mythic collaboration between visionary filmmaker Lino Brocka and superstar Nora Aunor, who produced and starred in the film at age 28. Playing against type in a brilliant subversion of her pop-celebrity status in a bid to be considered a serious artist — here indisputable — Aunor portrays Bona, a young woman from humble beginnings who spirals into desperate idolization.
Obsessed with the hunky but dim bit-part actor Gardo (Brocka regular Phillip Salvador), Bona drops out of high school to follow him around like a groupie. Her desire and delusion lead to acts of shocking self-subjugation. When she endures a beating from her father for her reckless behaviour, she moves into Gardo’s crammed house, attending to his every narcissistic need in the hope of reciprocation. The chilling ferocity, vulnerability, and abandon exuded by Aunor’s performance is so indelibly inscribed on Bona’s face that she haunts every scene.
- Director: Lino Brocka
- Principal Cast: Nora Aunor, Phillip Salvador, Marissa Delgado, Raquel Montesa, Venchito Galvez, Rustico Carpio, Nanding Josef, Spanky Manikan
- Country: Philippines
- Year: 1980
- Running Time: 86 min.
- Language: Tagalog
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- International Sales: Carlotta Films