And So It Begins

Ramona S Diaz’s pacey, engaging doc And So It Begins builds on 2020’s A Thousand Cuts to essay the 2022 Philippine Presidential election, and the nefarious machinations behind it. Often feeling more sturdy political drama than insightful exposé, the film centres the socially liberal candidate Leni Robredo and journalist and activist Maria Ressa (the focus of A Thousand Cuts) as they try to resist the electoral favourite and all-round awful fella Bongbong Marcos, son of the despotic Ferdinand Marcos who ruled from 1965 to 1986 with nine years of particularly brutal martial law towards the end of his term. The stakes are very high indeed.

Robredo and Ressa are compelling, charismatic figures. The latter especially, as she conveys the frustration and bears the weight of a lifetime fighting the corruption and human rights abuses perpetrated in her country without ever losing her grace and charm. The scene where she is informed of her Noble Peace Prize is a standout. Robreda is a little more enigmatic, and largely defined by the vibrancy and enthusiasm of her supporters.

Embracing the youth vote and LGBTQ+ community, Robreda’s “Pink Wave” grass roots campaign is steeped in positivity, peace and culture. Her rallies, including two enormous gatherings immediately before and after the vote count, revolve around light and colour and the appropriation of catchy pop songs her name can be slyly inserted into. These scenes are soaring highs. However, with those highs come devastating lows.

The threat of the incumbent Rodrigo Duterte’s, to say the least, heavy-handed police and Marcos Jr’s disinformation tactics loom large. It is chilling to see a modern, well-heeled news organisation like Ressa’s Rappler practice response to raids from law enforcement to not only protect their stories and sources but their own lives. Diaz covering online trolling and Facebook Fake News is less effective in 2024, given all we’ve seen and heard and gawped at in disbelief over the best part of a decade. And that is the main issue with this entertaining work – it doesn’t reveal a huge amount you don’t know about fraught elections and political chicanery in a post-Trump world. And the things it does reveal about the players – whom you probably don’t know – are little more than a peek. The high stakes only fleetingly captured.

A very good watch, but the Wikipedia hole it takes you down after lasts a lot longer than a propulsive 110 minutes. Maybe that’s what Diaz wants.