Bakal Boys paints a grim picture of imperiled children in a slum community who dive for scrap metal in the murky waters of Manila Bay to make a living. Gina Pareño stars in the film as a Muslim grandmother looking for her ten-year-old grandson who is presumed dead after being lost at sea. The producers of the film cast real-life children metal divers who risk life and limb almost daily in their efforts to earn a few pesos for the metal that they scavenge.
Known internationally as Children Metal Divers, this film will be screened starting March 10 in the following cinemas: SM Megamall, SM Manila, SM North Edsa, SM Fairview, SM Southmall and Robinsons Galleria.
This digital film marks the directorial debut of Ralston Jover, the award-winning scriptwriter of internationally acclaimed films Kubrador (2006), Manoro (2006), Tirador (2007) and Foster Child (2007).
Bakal Boys (Children Metal Divers) is the first full length venture of Apogee Productions under Albert Almendralejo, in cooperation with the National Commission on Culture and Arts.
The Cinema Evaluation Board has graded Bakal Boys with an "A," allowing the producers to have a 100 percent rebate on amusement taxes. The CEB provided the filmmakers with the following comments regarding the film:
"The first full-length feature from director Ralston Jover was notable for its documentary approach and lyric realism, of the same league yet distinct from Brillante Mendoza and Jeffrey Jeturian, for whom Jover was previously scriptwriter.
"Story was actually threadbare, to minimalist effect, which might have been more effective as a short film. The docu-drama has a number of emotionally stirring moments without giving way to sentimentality.
"And because the story was told almost in real time, pacing was deemed a bit slow, accenting its restrained, cinema verite style. Dialogue and even the names of the boys rang true and unembellished, the conflict presented by the missing boy Bungal perhaps not compelling enough.
"The sweeping shots of slum, sea and sky could have been more stunning if less dark, owing to the cinematographer's persistence in the use of available light. If at times proceedings appeared a bit grainy, this was seen to work against the film whose dark depictions required some sharpness in tone and contrast.
"The child actors, actual bakal boys in the Baseco area in Tondo, were naturals almost upstaging their professional counterparts. The parents of Utoy were also commendable in their no frills portrayal of a couple trying to make ends meet with three young kids in a sort of life by the seawall. Gina Pareño lent weight to the film as the Muslim grandma of the missing boy—great gravitas.
"Music was sparse, effective, barely noticeable, the sound a hypnotic rhythm of waves against the breakwater, short of lulling the audience into a trance.
"It's possible that Jover is still feeling his way from his role as scriptwriter to director, same with Armando Lao who also recently ventured into directing. Could he be playing into the hands of the foreign film festivals that want stories of Filipino poverty?
"BAKAL BOYS is a story well told and consummately shot, not a shade of pretension in it. Already such film could be a first step to raise these boys out of their squalor, by showing the lyric realism of their existence and the value of friendship one can never take for granted, least of all by children."
CLICK HERE to read PEP's review of Bakal Boys.