Deathrow: Not a movie but reality

I love "jail" – based movies. I actually don’t know why but I must have seen them all from the Oli-ver Stone classic, Midnight Express to Oscar Best Picture nominee The Green Mile, to Sean Penn’s Dead Man Walking, Denzel Washington’s Hurricane, and even Claire Danes’ Brokedown Palace which created a stir in the Philippines.

It must be fascination for the unknown. And if there is anything many people don’t know about, it’s life inside death row. We may have a glimpse of it, we may have heard stories, we may have even visited someone living within those concrete walls, but there is absolutely no way we can ever fathom that world.

Is it really a world of isolation? Is it really a living hell? Is it really a fate worse than death? Is it really as corrupt, dark and sinister as many claim it to be?

I guess I’ll never know for sure. But one thing is clear, death row is not a place for kids; not a place for minors. Most civilized people realize that a minor no matter how heinous the crime, should be given a chance in life. Because of this, a separate justice system has been set up for juveniles. The same holds true for the Philippines. But for some bizarre reason, there are minors inside death row. And this is why we decided to produce the movie, Deathrow.

Film critic Jeff Ramos claimed, "Nothing prepared me for the movie Deathrow."

He was referring to the realism portrayed in the movie about the life of a minor inside death row. I echo Jeff’s sentiment. I’ve seen the movie about a dozen times while being shot, in the editing room, offline revisions and the video dub copy. I thought watching the movie on the big screen wouldn’t have any effect on me, I was wrong. I was stunned. I said to myself, "this is not a movie, this is the real thing."

Deathrow chronicles the life of a minor given a death sentence and thrown inside jail with hardened criminals. This is not a powerful "politician’s son" type minor. This is about a poor, powerless, insignificant kid whose parents gave him up, and whose relatives deserted him. Throw this type of kid in death row, and you might as well have killed him.

The movie will grip you not because it is a well-crafted fiction. The movie will grip you because it is real. The darkness is real, the evil is real, the corruption is real, the abuse is real, the foul language is real, the power struggle is real, the cheapness of human life is real, and the violence is real.

But woven within that darkness is a ray of hope. Alongside the minor played by Cogie Domingo, is a 70-year-old convict, played by Eddie Garcia, waiting to be executed. Having been in jail for over 30 years as a hardened murderer, he turns around at the twilight of his depraved life and decides to protect the kid from the evil world of death row. This sends a strong message that even the most heartless criminal can still be a positive influence in a person’s life.

I’ve been asked, "Why such an intense movie for the Christmas season?"

It’s because the hope or light may not shine very bright within the movie. But the real hope and light comes after watching the movie.

The light shines when the general public and those in power realize that there needs to be an improvement in the juvenile justice system.

The light shines when teenagers realize that they shouldn’t even think about committing a crime because the world that awaits them is near-hell.

The light shines when those that have committed the worst of sins turn around become positive influence somehow, somewhere.

Finally the light really shines when the kids in death row are given the reduced sentence of life, and brought into a prison system where they may have a chance to live.

If this happens in whatever shape, form, manner or degree, then the movie, Deathrow would have really been a movie of hope and light.

GMA Films won Best Film for 1998 and 1999. We may or may not win Best Film for 2000, but it really doesn’t matter. Having seen Deathrow on the big screen, as far as I’m concerned, this is not just a movie, this is the real thing.