“A Woman in a Septic Tank” movie review

I heard about the movie “A Woman in a Septic Tank” the 2011 Filipino comedy independent film directed by Martinez-Rivera. I thought it’s all about poverty that relies on a girl who eats only feces. I want to watch it because of curiosity. How does the title of the movie became “A Woman in a Septic Tank”? And how Ms. Eugene Domingo acted like that.

One day, Sir Jeck set up the equipments to watch the movie and I was so excited when it’s started to play. I was shocked because it’s not funny in the beginning, it was a touching story of a mother who had many children, they eat together with one pack of noodles but Mila can’t afford to see her children. On the next scene, Mila with her son at the backyard, she assisted her son to take a bath then she dressed the boy and they went to motel. In the motel, there’s an old man waiting for her son. As a mother it feels hurt but for the sake of her children left on her custody and because of illness, she did a wrong move. In that scene, I feel anguish about what Mila did. She would be a stronger mother despite of many hardships that will come but she gave her son.

But this is not a point of view of a movie. It’s about a person who wants to be a popular director and to be above the other directors named Rainier (Kean Cipriano) with his Producer Bingbong (JM De Guzman) and Jocelyn (Cai Cortez) the Production Manager. There are so many struggles to overcome to achieve their goals and one of their problems is the star of their script. They have chosen Ms Eugene Domingo herself, and they take it as a challenge. Ms Eugene will take a role but in one condition, she’s complaining about sequence no. 7 which she will dive on a septic tank, if they didn’t remove that scene, she will not accept the role. But they urgently found solution to their problem.

During a shooting at the squatter area, Ms. Eugene had a double to dive in a septic tank but because of her non-stop talking, she wasn’t able to notice that her foot was closer to a septic tank. In an unexpected situation Ms. Eugene fell on a septic tank and speechless. The Production staff seeks a permission to record her situation and she agreed.

I think the movie was very successful. And now I know why the title of the movie became “The Woman in a Septic Tank” because of what Ms Eugene Domingo did. It is very exceptional movie and I like it.