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"Himala" is Filipino for "miracle" and this is precisely what the movie is. A strong contender for Best Picture in the 1982 Berlin Film Festival and the hands down winner in the Metro Manila Film Festival, "Himala" is one film cineastes must watch if he or she wishes to explore Philippine cinema. Set in a God-forsaken marginal town, "Himala" boasts of a richly textured millieu, a veritable Filipino Nowhereland just waiting for a miracle. And the miracle-incarnate is Elsa, a simple but headstrong young girl who claims to have seen the Virgin Mary and who starts a healing crusade. The complex, highly nuanced role was played by the Philippine's premiere actress Nora Aunor, who missed the Berlin Best Actress award by one vote. Everyone else in the film were thespians from theatre. Loaded with fascinating characters caught in an ideological-moral inferno, the film brings to the fore the complex, harsh social realities that face third world people and how such realities find their way in cultural expressions such as religion. The sensitive direction of the late Ishmael Bernal, the creatively austere camera work, the haunting musical score, and of course, the thespic genius of Nora Aunor make "Himala" a truly great film that merits re-viewing and re-discovery, especially by foreign audiences. The "Via Dolorosa" denouement remains as one of the most riveting scenes I've ever seen in any film. A cinematic miracle, indeed.
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