Nestlé Tingala sa Babâ a hit

MANILA, Philippines - A number of online and print media reviewers have cited Tingala sa Babâ (Look Up Below), one of the 10 short features in the Nestlé Philippines’ Kasambuhay Habambuhay short-film anthology, as their personal pick.

One blogger says it’s her “favorite…a light satire that depicts the lopsided life of the rich and the poor. I like how they used the seesaw as an instrument of power and humility. No need for big stars and for complicated settings. Brilliant script…” Another says Tingala sa Babâ “won my heart, hands down.” A newspaper columnist writes, “Tingala sa Babâ is unforgettable for the sheer profundity of its message and the innocence of the child actors.”

The 12-minuter certainly reeks of charm and wit, thanks to director-scriptwriter Henry Frejas and an inspired cast headlined by child actors Eubert Marc de la Cruz, Aya Brea Bundang and Arvy Cesar Viduya. The film opens in a playground that’s empty save for two children — one pudgy, in a school uniform, and the other a scrawny outsider in faded street clothes — struggling on a seesaw. The well-off Renzo (De la Cruz) is, as expected, stuck on the ground, no matter how hard his playmate Angelo (Viduya), quite naturally stuck in mid-air, tried to bear down on his end of the plank in an effort to lift Renzo whose only wish was to be “up there.”

Frejas had taken pains to cast his actors. “I try not to cast a celebrity or some known actor when making a film. There’s something you want to say through the film, and I want that to come across. I always consider the audience. I think that at some point, with a celebrity in the cast, the film’s ability to tell a story will be disturbed,” he says.

He thinks the audience appreciated Tingala sa Babâ “maybe because it was so grounded in reality and human insights.” He is amused that some viewers insist on seeing it as a tale of friendships. “The plot might look like it’s about friendship, but the story is really one of the relationship between the rich and the poor who, in reality cannot live together but know that they live in one world and thus must relate with one another,” he says.

Tingala sa Babâ, sponsored by Nestlé Koko Krunch and Nestlé Drumstick, is one of the best in the 10-film anthology that commemorates Nestlé Philippines’ 100 years.