115. Verdict; movie review

 

VERDICT

Cert 15

126 mins

BBFC advice: Contains domestic abuse, strong violence, language

Last week, Jess Phillips MP read out a list of women killed by men in the United Kingdom as a result of domestic violence.

It took her five minutes to catalogue the victims. The effect reminded me of how I felt on hearing the names of the First World War dead at Tyne Cot cemetery in Belgium.

I took a few moments to contemplate how the lives of the women highlighted by Ms Phillips had been cut violently short and what they would have gone on to achieve.

Despite this light being rightly shone upon domestic violence, Britain has better systems for dealing with it than many countries.

These would include the ​Philippines if Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s shocking domestic abuse drama is true to life.

This is the sickening story of Joy (Max Eigenmann) and her six-year-old daughter Angel (Jordhen Suan) who are savagely beaten up by her husband, Dante (Kristoffer King), a small-time criminal. 

Joy grabs her daughter and flees to the local police station, understandably believing that Dante will be arrested and thrown into jail. 

However, the Filipino justice system beggars belief and she is obstructed by corruption, incompetence,  bureaucracy and indifference - even from those who are supposed to specialise in family protection.

For example, after the attack, the mother and daughter and questioned by police next to their assailant.

Then they face being hassled by the hospital over instant payment for urgent treatment.

But that is only the beginning of the farce in which all of the emphasis is on Joy, rather than police or prosecution, to prove Dante's guilt.

She even has responsibility for producing witnesses who inevitably don't want to become embroiled in a neighbour dispute.

Verdict is all the more compelling because it feels like a documentary and almost every scene reflects the claustrophobia of the crowded city of Manila with people spilling out of courtrooms, hospitals, police stations and apartment blocks.

Put simply, there are too many people for any time to investigate anything - either for the judge, police officers, prosecutors or doctors.

Gutierrez translates all of the above, aided by actors who are very natural. Indeed, we mused on how he had managed to coax Suan to give such a realistic performance at such a young age.

She was one of the key elements in a convincing but very disturbing movie.

Reasons to watch: Riveting and shocking

Reasons to avoid: Violent scenes

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Did you know? According to the 2017 Philippines Demographic and Health Survey, 26% of married women aged 15–49 had experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence by their husband or partner. One in five women reported experiencing emotional violence, 14% had ever experienced physical violence, and five per cent had experienced sexual violence by their current or most recent husband or partner.

The final word. Raymund Ribay Gutierrez: "I interviewed lots of lawyers, lots of abused women and the abusers as well to get their side. I even enrolled in a crash course of law with the help of my friends who were lawyers and that’s when I found out the bigger problem in society." Moveablefest

 

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