My Favorite Movies: ANAK DALITA

Director: Lamberto Avellana
Year: 1956

What I really liked about this Filipino film classic was how it was able to effectively transport me to Manila circa the 1950s. It was able to capture the landscape, the vibrancy, and perhaps the mood of the era, more than any other film from that period, maybe because while the movies coming out of LVN, Sampaguita and Premiere at that time strived to project glamour, Anak Dalita was closer in spirit to Italian neorealism. There were scenes in the movie that can be considered glamorous, yes, but that's mainly because of the stars, more specifically Rosa Rosal, who was truly a bombshell at that time. Manila was portrayed in the movie both as a city of dreams and nightmares, almost twenty years before Lino Brocka did the same for Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag. Truly a masterpiece, Anak Dalita deserves a new generation of admirers.

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