Quezon's Game: The inspiring tale of the "Oskar Schindler of the Philippines" is worth telling better than this

By Linda Barnard

Rating: C

Based on the true-life story of Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon, Quezon's Game tells the inspiring story of a figure in short supply today: a selfless and heroic political leader.

In largely unknown acts, Quezon battled prejudice-fueled American stonewalling and domestic naysayers to open the Philippines to as many imperiled German and Austrian Jewish refugees as possible in 1938.

Raymond Bagatsing plays Pres. Manuel Quezon, the Oskar Schindler of the Philippines in Quezon’s Game

Stepping in when the U.S., Canada and other countries shut their doors to refugees fleeing Nazi persecution on the eve of the Second World War, Quezon hoped to save 10,000 Jews. He eventually rescued 1,200, about the same number of people as Oskar Schindler.

Thanks to Steven Spielberg’s powerful 1993 multiple Oscar-winning drama,Schindler’s List, Schindler’s heroism is widely known. First-time director Matthew Rosen’s low-budget passion project (he’s also the film’s cinematographer) aspires to shine the same spotlight on Quezon.

Too bad Quezon’s Game is an often amateurish, overlong effort weighed down by a clunky script from Janice Y. Perez and Dean Rosen (also the film’s composer).

Aside from solid turns by Raymond Bagatsing as Quezon, Rachel Alejandro as his wife, Aurora, and Billy Ray Gallion as Jewish cigar-manufacturer Alex Frieder, the acting swings between wooden and melodramatic. Budget constraints are evident.

Quezon hears the horrific news of the Third Reich’s push to clear Jewish ghettos in Germany and Austria from poker buddy Frieder. He comes up with a plan to get the Jews to safety by telling Nazi Germany he needs skilled workers, teachers and scientists to help the Philippines realize pending independence goals. 

The story is most often told around Quezon’s favourite haunt, the poker tables at a Manila hotel. Young officer and future U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower (David Bianco, sporting a uniform a couple of sizes too big), U.S. High Commissioner Paul McNutt and Frieder are always dealt in, shooing wives to another table so they can talk plans amid great clouds of cigar smoke.

All those stogies didn’t do much for Quezon, often bent double with a cough that stains snowy handkerchiefs and shirt cuffs with red splotches. His tuberculosis — which would kill him in 1944 — does little to slow him down as he fights for the refugees.

Then the devil shows up. Kevin Kraemer plays SS officer Ebner, the newly appointed head of security at the German embassy, muscling in with almost comic, heel-clicking enthusiasm. 

The film improves in the dramatic final reel, as Quezon struggles to complete his task while facing the heartbreaking task of cutting the refugee list after pushback on visas, refugee quota increases and exit permits.

The question “could I have done more?” haunts him until his death.

Rosen, a British-born Jew who has lived in the Philippines since the 1980s, was compelled to make Quezon’s Game and the story certainly deserves wider recognition. (A one-hour 2013 documentary Rescue in the Philippines: Refuge from the Holocaust  is available on Amazon Prime.)

The closing credits include interviews with some of those Quezon saved as children, as well as their families, moving testimonials about the powerful good that rose from one righteous man’s determination to help others when the world turned away.

Quezon’s Game: Directed by Matthew Rosen. Written by Janice Y. Perez and Dean Rosen. Stars Raymond Bagatsing, Rachel Alejandro, Billy Ray Gallion, David Bianco and James Paoleli. Opens Friday, January 24 in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary and Winnipeg.