The ongoing Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) selected Paul Soriano’s The Fisher to compete for the Ethical Film Award alongside Power Alley, a Brazil-France-Uruguay co-production, and Spain’s 20,000 Species of Bees.
The unique Ethical Film Award addresses important contemporary social themes, such as poverty, diversity, gender equality, the environment, and discrimination.
The Fisher, screened on monochrome black and white, stars Mon Confiado, Mercedes Cabral, Eula Valdez, Heaven Peralejo, Enchong Dee, and Tommy Alejandrino.
The 138-minute film focuses on an a fishing community where the main source of income is nil. The fish have died for unknown reasons. Pedro (Mon Confiado) blames his fellow fishermen, convinced that the main culprit is the town’s practice of illegal dynamite fishing.
Pedro is a proud man on the outside but deep inside he is hurting. He lost his son Andro, played by Tommy Alejandrino, in the sea. His wife (Mercedes Cabral) is so sick and with the high cost of medicines, he cannot afford to restore her health.
Pedro’s relationship with his adoptive daughter Simone (Heaven Peralejo) is cold. Will they fix their broken relationship? Life makes a 360 degree turn when Pedro catches a drowning man underwater.
The good-looking man is a lost Chinese fisherman named Hai, who gets smitten with Simone to the disgust of Pedro. Both men wring each other’s necks, physically fighting because Pedro wants Hai to leave the country.
During the Q&A with the audience, Mon discussed the hardships they went thorough. “We encountered a lot of typhoons,” he says. “I guess five typhoons during the shooting and one earthquake.”
Aside from that, Mon has vertigo. “I had to take 10-12 Bonamine before shooting,” he said. He also did an immersion in a fishing community to know how they live.
If Mon were the fisher, Enchong was literally the fish.
For Enchong, the experience was a “dream come true.” He loves the water. He has been swimming since he was six years old. The former UAAP MVP had won seven gold medals for De La Salle University in 2009 and no doubt, his character was tailor made for him.
“I’ve always believed that water is my element,” recalls the actor. “So, when we were shooting, I was just having fun.”
Touching the world of myths requires tremendous research. “The origin of that myth, Simone giving birth to the fish, is a myth in our country, they say it’s true, especially for young women who live near the sea,” reveals Paul.
We appreciated how Paul has grown as a director, maybe because fatherhood has changed him. He translated this onscreen by showing how Pedro coped with the loss of his son and how he accepted his son’s fate after meeting Hai.
“I believe as a filmmaker, each film you do, it defines where you are at that particular moment,” muses Paul.
The 42-year-old director was earlier inspired by the transcendental style of award-winning director Lav Diaz. But this time, he has begun to define his own voice and style. “Now, I am much older, much more mature, I am finding my voice and I think The Fisher is really the style of the filmmaker and storyteller I am becoming.”
The issue on the West Philippine Sea is not the film’s primary focus but a call for unity. “I believe that despite our disagreements, despite our differences, culturally as people, if we find ways to come together, I believe there would be much more prosperity for all as you saw with Pedro and Hai,” says Paul.