The international edition of the short film

"Pitaka" ("The Wallet") By Chris Cahilig

Brotherhood
Reflection Paper

Introduction

A family is a group of people who value and care for one another in spite of challenges. Our family
is what we prioritize in life. People's relatives, siblings, grandparents, grandmothers, and acquaintances
who become family make up families. However, there are also small families where the love between
the members is priceless, as we saw in this short film about the older brother who makes sacrifices so
that his younger brother can finish his studies. People with large families tend to be happier because
their relatives are also their closest friends. According to a famous quote, "being a family" implies you
are a part of something incredibly amazing. According to Lisa Weed, it signifies that you will love and
be loved for the rest of your life. Even if his younger brother is capable of leading a self-sufficient
existence, he won't abandon him since he cares and loves him dearly, even though he is the one who
makes sacrifices for the two of them.

The eldest sibling in this family is very strong, just like in the culture of the Filipino people. Even
though he is the only one taking care of his brother's necessities, he manages and solves challenging
issues on his own. The older brother raises his younger brother as a parent because they both grew up
without parents. A different kind of suffering and loneliness come with not having a whole family. One
of our support systems is our family. The older brother made altruistic efforts to the extent that he
forwent his personal life in order to meet his sibling's demands, particularly his educational ones. When
the younger brother finished his schooling and was given the opportunity to find a job, he offered to
help and repay his older brother's generosity and sacrifices right away.

This short movie that we entitled “Brotherhood” demonstrated that their efforts had been fruitful.
Despite the difficulties of being the only two family members who work hard and having only the
oldest brother, they manage to go on with their lives and keep pushing for a better future. They value
each other and give each other a chance to demonstrate that despite life's challenges, family is
everything, and they won't leave one another in order to solve all of their issues.

I. Family love is a bonding that is unbreakable. We all know what love is but the love that we feel in
our family is different. Family love is like home, it is our comfort zone and we put all our efforts to
help each other. Just like in the video, the older brother genuinely love his younger brother and he

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wanted his younger brother to pursue and finish his college. He worked hard to
help his younger brother with all his expenses in school. Waking up early to go
to work, having a sidelines for more income, putting all his efforts to gain
income to support the studies of his brother. He really wanted to make his younger brother successful,
that's why he did everything to help him.

This kind of love is unbreakable, although there's a lot of challenges that he faced to achieve his
brother's goal, he still managed to get up and help his brother. Family is more than anything in this
world. Love in the family is genuine, true and sacrificial. We have this mindset to help every member
of our family, through up and down, family is family. It is a home for everyone individual, a home that
we feel what love is, it a love that no other people can break, family is a love that is unbreakable.The
following are the evidences that shows the unbreakable bond of them:

First, the older brother wanted his younger brother to finish in college because it is their dream
that's why he is selling to his co-workers to have more income. Second evidence is the older brother
works day and night because he wants to make sure that his income will cover all the expenses of his
younger brother. He borrowed the taxi of his boss to make more income. Even though he is tired, he is
looking forward to their dream. Lastly, in all difficult situations that they encountered, they still stick to
each other and after his younger brother graduated, he didn't leave his older brother but he is the one
who is helping his older brother now.

II. The power of unconditional love for the family. “Family is not an important thing. It's
everything.” – Michael J. Fox. All families have challenges, strengths and areas where they can grow.
Family is not about who is in your family or whom you consider family as much as it is about how
your family functions. Siblings should protect and care for each other no matter what happens. The
following are some pieces of evidence that proves that this film has shown the characteristics of
Filipino culture and Filipino traits.

Firstly, Filipinos are known as family-oriented people or for having close family ties. You can see
on the video that the bond of two men is unbreakable although they grow up without parents and the
eldest brother does the parent role. The sacrifices of the eldest brother are selfless to the point he gave
up his personal life just to support their needs, especially the education of his brother.

Secondly, he understands and respects the relationship status of his younger brother although the
situation is not that okay. Not having a complete family is a different level of pain and loneliness. For
some people they may think that the younger brother is selfish and just enjoying life. But his elder
brother didn't see it that way, though he has a right to question his brother because of their situation. He
supports the things that make his brother happy.

Lastly, when the younger brother finishes school and has a chance to work he immediately helps
and returns the kindness. All the hardworks of both men is paid off. In spite of the struggles of being
the only two members left in the family, they manage to continue their life and keep fighting for a
better future. The power of unconditional love for the family has shown, they appreciate and give each
other a chance to prove no matter how difficult life is, family is all that matters.

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III. There is no darkness, bleakness in the city. This statement proved in the
video that having family at your side is really a big light to us. Not in terms of
giving us money and wants, but the love care and guidance. Having them in times of we are looking for
an answer or when we are experiencing breakdown, they are the one who will be the light and guide to
lead us in the right path.

In the climax part of the video, it shows that in every person that surrounds us in our everyday life,
family or siblings is the one who you can be sure will help you in the end. Some of our friends can treat
us like family, and when we struggle, there is a tendency that they can leave you alone but the
bloodshed will give you the assurance that even if you've got difficulty you still have them to cry on.

The younger brother shows some gratitude to his brother. Giving someone a token of gratitude is
usual, especially when you are a type of person that is appreciative. It is not bad to return the goodness
of people around us. A simple token can make a person feel appreciated and motivated. That finally
there still people who can return goodness that they've done. Even they are not asking for it, you should
do what your part is.

Conclusion

We consequently came to the conclusion that the Pitaka, which we named the "Brotherhood", was
shown as a diligent older guy for his younger brother to support those necessities to complete his
college education. He started a side business for extra money in addition to his job. He genuinely
wanted his younger brother to succeed in the future and to support him. We are grateful for the older
brothers who have been supporting the family up until this point. For those people, we should be
grateful to those who aid us whether its tiny or great help, it can have a big impact for us, therefore
keep in mind this quote: "Anything that you give to others will also be returned to you that much
more."

References
Pitaka
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eIB92QmVyo

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