INA, KAPATID, ANAK

Lino Brocka's Mother, Sister, Daughter tops the current crop of 1979 movies because it has a strong, simple theme that gives Mel Chionglo's story and screenplay a unity most current scripts lack. Mother, Sister, Daughter is the story of two daughters who vie for their father's love. Emilia cannot understand why her father does not love her in spite of all her sacrifices. Pura, born out of wedlock, is the favoured daughter, but she cannot understand why her love for the man she wants is not enough to make him see that she is better than Emilia, who seduces him into marriage. Both women find it difficult to realize that love cannot be possessed. Both are hardened by this obsession, and their rivalry blights their love. Pura comes to an uneasy understanding of their situation, and there is hope that she finally would attain some sort of peace. But Emilia, though calmed by her father's death, is still dazed and cannot understand why she has been made so unhappy by the events in their lives.

This theme, that man cannot demand love from another, that it must be freely given (in the same way that we cannot demand that God loves us or shower us with special favours) is intertwined with sub-themes: the sub-theme of pride which will not bow to the ravages of time. After twenty years, Emilia still sees Pura as the bastard daughter who has no right to set foot in their house. After twenty years, Pura still harbours revenge in her heart, wishing dire poverty on Emilia, who stole the man she loved, when Emilia could not steal her father's love. (Pio de Castro, «Expressweek», 1979)