Cinema
Noli Me Tangere
Noli me tángere
Gerardo de Leon · 1961
Synopsis
Crisóstomo Ibarra returns to his home town after seven years of study in Europe. He learns that his father died in murky circumstances and that the parish priest had his body removed from the Christian cemetery. Determined to serve his country, he plans to open a school, is reunited with his fiancée María Clara and wins the friendship of the mysterious Elías, under the hostile gaze of Father Dámaso, in a Spanish colony undermined by corruption.
Context
The film adapts the book that José Rizal published in 1887 and was released in 1961, a hundred years after the writer's birth. Eddie del Mar plays Ibarra, Edita Vital María Clara, Oscar Keesee Father Dámaso and Leopoldo Salcedo Elías. The following year the director made a film from the sequel to the book. In 1989, the only surviving print was badly deteriorated: Filipino and German archivists saved it, and the restoration, carried out in Koblenz by the German federal archives, was presented in 1990 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Who it is for
A long adaptation, in Tagalog, with very composed images, low-angle shots and depth of field, which follows the crowd of characters in the book.
Prizes and reception
Five Famas awards in 1962, including best film and best direction; it is regarded as a classic of Philippine cinema.
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