Islands: A Filipino-Canadian Film About Taking Care

By Liam Lacey

Rating: B

Joshua is a shy middle-aged Filipino man in Toronto who lives with his elderly parents and works as a janitor at the university. When his mother dies, Joshua (played by the sad-eyed Rogelio Balagtasi) is obliged to quit his job and take care of his father.

He is joined by his younger female cousin, Marisol (Sheila Lotuaco), fleeing a bad job as a caregiver in Kuwait. Soon, as they prepare meals and exchange stories, he starts developing romantic feelings for her.

No, Islands is not a rom-com, though it involves a romantic crush and some deadpan comic moments. The narrative arc of Islands, so minimalist it’s really more of a slow bump, is about the gradual breaking down of Joshua’s small shell of comfort, his family and cultural conventions.

In early scenes, his mother makes his breakfast and packs his lunch for him, as if he were still a schoolboy. Once a week, he accompanies mom and dad to a senior’s dance at a community centre. His father, clearly more of an extrovert, is a former Elvis impersonator who dresses up in full regalia for Christmas day.

The film, by Filipino Canadian director Martin Edralin, evokes the 1955 film Marty, with Ernest Borgnine as a deeply shy middle-aged man living with his mother. But it also focuses on immigrants, people who are often over-qualified for their menial labour (Joshua was a dentist back home) specifically in the Filipino community, and the emotional weight of caregiving.

Edralin brings a carefully crafted, slow-cinema sensibility to the film, forcing the viewer feel the pressure of passing time, sometimes perhaps more than seems necessary. At one point, Joshua puts a dinner in the microwave and we patiently watch as it counts down the full 60 seconds — a test of patience only relieved by some bouncy cha-cha music on the soundtrack.

Camera work is appropriately static. Nearly all in the interior of the bland modern house. When Joshua exercises, it’s on a treadmill, like a hamster on a wheel.

When his mother suddenly dies, Joshua is tasked with taking care of his father, who is showing signs of dementia, trying to learn the basic cooking and care-giving skills he has never developed. That’s when Marisol comes into the picture.

The cousin from Kuwait comes for her aunt’s funeral. She hates her job, where she is sexually harassed. Partly through the persuasion of Joshua’s more successful married brother Paolo (Pablo S.J. Quiogue), she ends up moving in with Joshua and his ailing dad.

Her presence is a sharp reminder of Joshua’s loneliness, made worse when brother Paolo gives Joshua a sex toy as a joke gift for his 50th birthday. When Joshua masturbates, he turns around the picture of Jesus that hangs on his bedroom wall.

Meanwhile, the young, pretty and affectionate Marisol is sleeping in the room next door and sitting next to him on the sofa, watching television at night. Joshua eventually can’t help but telling her about his feelings.

That puts her in the awkward position of, once again, rebuffing the advances of a man with whom she shares a roof and depends on for her livelihood. In practice, Edralin’s script treats this scenario not as an instructive moment but as one of those awkward situations where, true to life, women are required to possess an emotional finesse that most men can live without.

Ultimately, Islands lands not where you expect, but with an ambiguous upbeat conclusion. Marisol’s presence has sparked the life force in Joshua, if not exactly lighting the fire he desires.

Islands. Written and directed by Martin Edralin. Starring Rogelio Balagtasi, Sheila Lotuaco, Pablo S.J. Quiogue. Screens at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox April 12 to 21; Winnipeg’s CInematheque April 15 to 28; VIFF Centre April 29 to May 5; and in the Cineplex Cinemas in Mississauga and Scarborough.