Bona (1980)
Australian Premiere - 4K Restoration
“Nora Aunor is the greatest actress the Philippines has ever produced.” – Lino Brocka, director of Bona and the greatest director the Philippines has ever produced
“As mordant in its way as the slyly subversive movies Luis Buñuel made in Mexico, Brocka’s two-fisted melodrama is a hellish, compelling work by a director…called ‘the great filmmaker of the ’70s.’” – J. Hoberman, New York Times
Bona is a stark tale of a selfless middle-class Manila schoolgirl (Nora Aunor) who develops a fierce, morbid attachment to a narcissistic movie extra and abandons everything to devote her life to serving the actor. No humiliation he heaps upon her deters her in any way. Aunor’s performance transforms the story into a profound portrait of a woman who, finally, doesn’t take it anymore.
Out of sight for over forty years since it premiered at Cannes in 1981, this 4K restoration premiered at Cannes Classics in 2024 and since then it has screened at the New York and Toronto Film Festivals.
Introduced by Russell Edwards at Ritz Cinemas and by Chris Luscri at Lido Cinemas.
Rating
Unclassified 18+
Duration
86 min
Country
Philippines
Language
Tagalog (English subtitles)
Cast
Nora Aunor, Phillip Salvador
Director
Lino Brocka
