Cast
;Cast * Alicia Alonzo as Aurora del Mundo * Robert Arevalo as Salvador "Badong" del Mundo * Hilda Koronel as Ester del Mundo *Plot
The movie follows the life ofProduction
''Sakada'' was the first film by director Behn Cervantes and scriptwriter Lualhati Bautista. It was filmed under time pressure and budget constraints. As a first-time film director, Cervantes said that he had to deal with technical problems. Time and budget constraints prevented the production from doing reshoots. ''Sakada'' was produced and screened in 1976 while the Philippines was under martial law under Ferdinand Marcos. After ''Sakada's'' third week of screening in Philippine cinemas, copies of the film were seized and the director was arrested and detained under the order of Marcos. After Cervantes' detention, he wrote in a letter to his family dated January 19, 1978, "My movie, ''Sakada'', and my plays, especially the last one, ''Pagsambang'' ''Bayan'', show the exploitative nature of this system, the evils the ruling class commit on the many, the need to change the order of things." ''Sakada'' was first shown on television on June 25, 2005, on ABCinema, three decades after prints were seized by the military from movie theaters. ABCinema aimed to feature "only the best local and foreign films that will make the Filipino audience more aware of their culture." In an interview, Cervantes was asked about how young audiences in 2005 could relate to ''Sakada''. He said society's problems " remain the same and most of the time we change leaders but they're the same dogs with different collars."Reception
Musical scorer Lutgardo Labad described ''Sakada'' as "a major cinematic coup that unearthed the inhuman conditions of our people then." Film critic Mel Tobias wrote that "any book on Filipino films would be incomplete without mentioning ''Sakada."'' He wrote that the film "was a cry to the people and the government to awaken to the serious labor problems in the Philippines. In the process, it stimulated the often infantile movie producers to acknowledge this unorthodox film, made contrary to the traditional formula of Philippine moviemaking." He also praised the performance of the star-studded cast, particularly of Rosa Rosal, "a versatile actress, homade a sensational comeback in her portrayal of a sentimental widow. She is driven to become a leader of the sakadas in their fight for reform." "The film, with its searing focus on the desperate plight of seasonal sugarcane workers, was an eye-opener for most viewers lulled by the martial law era's siren call of 'the true, the good and the beautiful,'" wrote an '' Inquirer'' editorial. ''Sakada'' was made at a time of strict censorship, according to Philippine national artist for literature Bienvenido Lumbera, yet "the ingenuity of scriptwriters and directors was able to offer movie-goers works that went beyond entertainment and tackled subject matter with social implications." In the essay "Terror and Culture under Marcos' New Society," Lumbera wrote that ''Sakada'' "exposed the abuses and injustices committed by landlords in cahoots with the military in the suppression of the peasant struggle for higher wages and better treatment." ''Sakada,'' in 1981, won a Dekada Award for Best Film of the Decade.See also
* Gawad Urian Award *References
External links
* {{IMDb title, id=0310104, title=Sakada 1976 drama films Filipino-language films Philippine historical drama films Philippine political films Social realism in film Films about the labor movement Films set in Negros Occidental Films set in Metro Manila Films about the working class Films about the upper class Films about interclass romance