TorontoFilmFestival: 'Verdict' examines a struggle for justice in the Philippines
Max Eigenmann plays a woman who presses charges against her husband after years of abuse in 'Verdict.'
Writer-director Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s unflinching drama evaluates rampant domestic abuse in his home country but intentionally offers few answers. Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s first feature forced its way into his consciousness. It all started with the screaming. "I was relaxing, and suddenly I could hear a couple fighting, really loudly," he recalls. "I took a look outside and saw a woman bruised, brutally. Her husband was asking us for help as their child had been accidentally hit by a plate.
"I’m very close to my mother and my sisters," says the director. "Seeing that kind of violence close up affected me deeply. I wanted to know more about the law and these types of cases, which it turned out are very usual in the Philippines."s story of a wife and mother who struggles to win justice for herself and daughter after sustained abuse from her husband . "I wanted to show the problem but not try to offer any solutions at all," says Gutierrez.
Critics claim this approach has resulted in Mendoza’s recent films coming a little too close to giving tacit endorsement to the policies of controversial Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. Gutierrez, though, brushes off such concerns and sounds a lot like his mentors when he says his stories simply "reflect reality." "The mantra [of the found stories movement] is that we mirror what life is," explains Gutierrez. "We’re not saying what should be done in the future.
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