Santa Santita- Christine4Heysoo

The film “Santa Santita” was very symbolic in many ways to the belief and culture of the Roman Catholic Church and also Christianity. The title itself foreshadows a character that is pure, holy, righteous, and at the same time behave in harlotry ways. The ‘Santita’ to me sort of devalue the meaning of the word ‘Santa’ in the beginning. It basically translated the title to ‘Unholy Saint’, which I think is an oxymoron. Also, I saw a parallel in that Malen’s mom was the ‘Santa’ while Malen was the ‘Santita’ and Santita killed the Santa. However in the end, the Santita was transformed and became the Santa that brought healing and joy to the people. The film exposed many of the activities that some catholic churches in the Philippines allowed. For example, businesses such as intercessory prayer for people who needed help and then collecting payment for the service. When did a prayer require payments? I saw the differences between having a relationship with God through prayer. Also, people had depended on others to pray for them instead of themselves going directly in the throne of the Lord. The parish also has turned their eyes from the miracle works of God and seeing the recover of health for the young child to be a work of the devil. Some of the parishioners in the film like the priest that live in the basement had tagged himself with hypocrisy because of his tendencies to get drunk and also to hide from the truth. It was actually Mike who enlightened the priest to change because of what Mike said when they were drinking although Mike did not know it. The beginning was creepy and scary because of the way it started. It started with a girl walking on the sand with barefoot and seemed lost. I did not realize that it would be Malen. The music or sound effect they used was very captivating in a bad sense. The beginning really grabbed the viewers’ attention or it also could have turned off them.

Her mom alone raised Malen, which seemed to be short for Magdalena, and they sell services like praying and rosaries to survive. Their life seemed to be parallel with Mike in that Mike too sell services to people by driving and I guessed for sex. Magdalena in the bible was a prostitute was able to receive forgiveness from Jesus and this paralleled with the life of Malen. All of the characters were having a hard time with Mike’s son being sick, the priest was hiding from his problems, however Malen’s mom still kept her faith in her God but mostly prayed for Malen so that she was protected always and safe. Mike did not have faith on God but instead he blamed God for how his life turns out to be. Malen was forced by circumstance to follow her mother footstep in her devout intercessory vocation after her mother died. I guessed there are things that we are thought or brought up by our parents that stay with us and these things are guiding us in making decisions even when there are other forces that come along. For Malen, it was Mike that came along which could have diverted or swayed her away from her God given purpose she did not compromise. There was a scene about the two lover making love and in Mike’s back, there was this demonic tattoo and this to me symbolized how the light and darkness met. This scene seemed to be the force that caused Malen to dream about her being crucified with blood oozing in her hand and feet like Jesus. This also led to her confession to the priest and finally availing herself to be used by God. When Malen was healing the nun’s foot, it symbolized how Jesus used to wash his disciples feet. There was an interesting scene when the nun and Malen talked about their service to God. The nun confessed that there were times when she felt cheated because people took advantage of her and that they should serve without consolation. I found it awkward in that Mike waited for his son to die then brought him to her for healing when Mike knew that he could have taken his son when he was still alive and that was because he did not believe in faith, the power of prayer, and the God that answer. What I would do differently is that if I was Malen, I would tell the people that they can go to God directly so that people do not be depended on others to pray for them. I would also add how Mike’s transformation process came to be.