Oscar B. Monterroyo Jr.

;and

Wynsh Miles Janiola

HU11A2

English 3

BIRDSHOT
Birdshot is a 2016 Philippine coming-of-age thriller film written, directed and edited by
Mikhail Red. The film Birdshot is about the young woman’s life from a rural area of the
Philippines where Diego Mariano (Ku Aquino) is the caretaker of the land surrounding a
sanctuary, he is the father of 14-year-old Maya (Mary Joy Apostol), whose mother died
from childbirth. Maya wants to explore the land beyond the family's isolated shack.
Diego wants his daughter to be self-sufficient, so he teaches her to fire a gun. After
failing her first shooting lessons, Maya wanders off to the forest sanctuary with her
father's dual barrel shotgun and deliberately kills a Philippine eagle, an endangered
animal.
After fumbling her first shooting lesson, Maya takes Diego’s rifle into the sanctuary and
mistakenly kills a haribon. a rookie cop and proud new father who’s just arrived in the
area. While investigating the disappearance of a busload of farmers route to Manila
with grievances about unfair treatment, Domingo is ordered to drop the case. According
to his cynical partner Mendoza (John Arcilla, “Heneral Luna”) and their fearsome local
commander, de la Paz (Dido de la Paz), all that matters now is finding the haribon’s
killer. Using the missing persons case to draw parallels with the still-unresolved
Maguindanao bus massacre of 2009, Red and co-writer Rae Red (also his cousin) leave
no doubt that Domingo’s orders are politically motivated and involve high-level
corruption. Following threats to the safety of his unnamed wife (Elora Espano) and
ominous stares from fellow officers, Domingo buckles dramatically. The brutality around
Domingo is in stark contrast to elegantly composed sequences that show Maya sensing
danger and retreating into the forest at night when her father fails to return. At various
moments, Maya is watched by figures wearing robes and masks, as if they might be
spirits observing her passage to womanhood and guiding her to the world beyond this
isolated backwoods.
Birdshot concludes with horror after horror. Diego, having escaped from prison, comes
home and briefly reunites with Maya, just as Mendoza and Domingo arrive with lethal
intentions. Diego shoves Maya away and fires at the police. The shootout kills him and
Mendoza, and badly wounds Domingo.