"Makiusap Ka sa Diyos" (1991)
Regal Films
Release Date July 24, 1991
Story and Screenplay Raquel Villavicencio
Cinematography Clodualdo Austria
Film Editor George Jarlego
Production Designer Benjie de Guzman
Musical Director Lutgardo Labad
Executive Producer Lily Monteverde
Direction Lino Brocka
Cast Christopher de Leon, Gabby Concepcion, Gloria Romero, Rosemarie Gil, Maricel Laxa, Cris Villanueva and Ruffa Gutierrez/ Also Starring Mary Walter, Anita Linda, Gamaliel Viray, Rudy Tacorda, Menggie Cobarrubias, Perla Bautista, Romeo Rivera/ Featuring Margarita Fuentes, Malu de Guzman, Aida Carmona, Ernie Zarate, Benjie Ledesma, Vangie Labalan, Estrella Kuenzler, Chie Concepcion
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Synopsis: Dolores Aaron’s (Ruffa Gutierrez) childhood dream has been to serve the Lord. She has entered the novitiate of the Daughters of St. Anne and is very excited as in two months time, she will be saying her final vows.
Emil Ornedo (Cris Villanueva) is a seminarian in the Order of St. John of the Cross. He is very much in love with Dolores and confesses he joined the seminary to be near her. He too will be saying his vows as a brother soon. He proposes to Dolores who turns him down. She is very determined to become a nun.
One of the duties of the nuns is to serve the community. The Daughters of St. Anne is committed to help Dr. Vince Leveriza (Christopher de Leon) in setting up a free clinic in San Lazaro. Sisters Dolores and Amanda have been assigned to help out. Dolores’ pregnant sister, Belinda (Maricel Laxa), and her husband, Alan (Gabby Concepcion), are vacationing in the area. One evening, her sister delivers a stillborn baby girl. Vince and Dolores are called to help. Belinda cries profusely and asks Dolores to intercede with God for her child’s life. Dolores cradles the baby in her arms and, as she looks at the picture of the Holy Family on the wall, the baby starts to cry. Belinda calls it a miracle, but Dolores tells her to keep mum. Dolores is more sure than ever that the nunnery is her life.
But as she is bicycling back to her order, a mysterious stranger manages to assault her and cover her nose with a piece of cloth drenched with chloroform. Upon regaining consciousness, she realizes she has been violated. She goes to a stream and washes herself pure.
Dolores confronts Emil but learns he is not the guilty party. She is distraught and feels that God has betrayed her. She continues on with her final vows. In the ceremony, she faints. She is found to be pregnant. The nuns are scandalized. Sister Carmen, the mother superior, locks her up in her room and allows no one to visit her. She talks to Sister Bernadette, the oldest of the congregation, about having the baby adopted once it is born. Sister Amanda overhears the conversation and tells Dolores. Dolores wants to keep the baby and feels she must leave. With the help of Sister Amanda, she manages to escape. It is a rainy night, and she knocks on the door of a kind woman who lives with her lame daughter, Rebecca. She delivers a baby boy whom she calls Nino.
Rebecca becomes close to her and asks, as she is a person of God, to intercede with him so that she could walk again. Dolores places her hands on her legs but they do not move. Dolores visits her mother who slaps her when she finds out. She hurriedly leaves the house when her mother calls the convent. She boards with Alan and Belinda who scoff at her religiosity. The father accepts Dolores as an unwed mother and settles her obligations with the nuns. She is now released from her vows. She searches out Emil, but to her disappointment, he has changed his mind. He now wants to become a priest.
Dolores now tries to adjust to a secular life. She learns that Alan and Belinda are at odds with each other and that Marga, their child, is not his daughter. Belinda was carrying on with a married man who left her. He married her upon their father's promise of a position in her law firm. On their wedding night, she laughed at him for being such a wimp. His illusions vanished at that very moment. One day, Marga becomes ill. Dr. Vince Leveriza is called for. He is happy to see Dolores and learns about her condition. He starts courting her and, in due time, gets her to be his wife. On their wedding night, Dolores is unsettled by the sex act. She tries to postpone it, but Vince is insistent. In his exasperation, he reveals that he is her rapist. He did it out of his contempt for the condescending, holier-than-thou attitudes of the religious. Dolores becomes hysterical.
Dolores and Vince present themselves as happily married to the eyes of their acquaintances, though she refuses to sleep with him. Out of his desperation, Vince sleeps around --- with Belinda whose husband also refuses to fulfill his marital obligations. One night, Dolores spots some plane tickets in his shirt. She disposes of them. It seems Vince had intended to leave for somewhere with their son.
It is Dolores’ birthday party. She has invited her parents and friends to a dinner. She notices a bulge in the stomach of Ursula Maniago, her servant. She forces her to reveal the name of the culprit. It is her husband. There is bedlam with the revelation and Dolores’ father confronts Vince. He suffers a heart attack and expires while punching him. Dolores now sinks deeper into morbidity and blames herself for her father’s death. Vince now sleeps openly with the maid in her quarters in the garage. In a moment of insanity, Dolores decides to burn down the adjacent structure. Vince and Ursula are burned alive, along with their son.
It is a sensational court case. Dolores is arraigned on two counts of parricide and premeditated murder. Alan, who admits being in love with Dolores, is her lawyer. He ably defends her. She is acquitted of the charges but is committed to an insane asylum.
Time passes. Dolores wears her novice habit and tries to adjust to life in the asylum. She is visited by friends, among them Rebecca and her mother. Rebecca asks her again to cure her of her lameness. She places her hands on her numb legs and they start to move. It is a miracle. Dolores regains her trust in God.
Source: Lino Brocka: The Artist and His Times
DVD Release
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