First Light is a film with strong Catholic characters and themes in which an elderly nun witnesses a young construction worker’s fatal accident, compelling her to question the ethical principles of the institution to which she has devoted her life. Source: Australian Catholics.
Set in the Philippines, the director, James J. Robinson, is of Filipino and Australian descent, a photographer, filmmaker, remembering his Catholic upbringing and reflecting on it through this drama. The film is a Filipino-Australian co-production, with finance from Screen Australia and the Melbourne International Film Festival.
At the centre is long-time nun, Sister Yolanda (a sympathetic performance by popular Filipino actress Ruby Ruiz). Sr Yolanda lives in community but with an apostolate that has her going out to hospitals, homes. She is cheerful, caring, and, for the audience of the film, likeable. She is a comforting presence to the wide range of people she meets.
Her community has adapted to the times. There is strong community life with the support of a superior, meals and prayer together, but an outreach at any time for those in need. In fact, the sisters are in need themselves because they are living in one of the oldest convents since the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines and it is in dire need of repair.
At one stage, a grieving man whose son has been injured on a highway construction site is allowed to die, refused medical and surgical help to cover up investigations about the business and the work, tells Sr Yolanda that she is truly a person of God and not just person of the Church.
The complication is that Sr Yolanda has been visiting daily the mother of a wealthy woman whose husband is in charge of the construction site. The old lady is on life support, her daughter arguing that the death of the young man injured is a sacrifice necessary for the betterment of the whole community because of the new highway.
Sr Yolanda who is also ill, visits the place where she grew up with her loving mother. The caretaker from her younger days is still there and reminisces with her. As she thinks about her future and her death, remembering her life, she sees the image of light as well as rain falling on the water and becoming one with it.
The film offers interesting perspectives on life in the Philippines, the different social classes, the role of the Catholic Church – but a wonderful portrait of a self-giving nun.
Review by Fr Peter Malone MSC, Jesuit Media.
First Light: Starring Ruby Ruiz, Kare Adea, Maricel Soriano. Directed by James J Robinson. 118 minutes. Rated MA (Coarse language).
FILM REVIEW
First Light (Australian Catholics)
