Response to Santa Santita by Rod Antalan

Response To Santa Santita

In class, we watched the movie, Santa Santita. It starts off by following the life of a young woman named Malen. She and her mother make a living praying for people in church in hopes of curing them of their illnesses and forgiveness of their sins. Although she prays for people, Malen herself does not seem to believe in God because she feels as though he has done nothing for her and her mother. One day, Malen finds a young man with whom she is very interested in. This young man however, is full of sin and she is not aware of it at first. She discovers that she has the power to heal and her belief in God seems to strengthen as people continue to flock to her because she is the direct connection to God.
I find that I really enjoyed Malen and the Father. Malen was the typical hero of the story who had her own problems in the beginning but in the end overcomes them and helps others. The Father’s character, I thought, was funny. It was awkward to see a religious man like him actually having an alcohol problem. It was funny because alcoholism is such a bad problem and this holy man was so overly consumed by it. It was different to see such a well-respected figure in such a lowly position.
In the beginning of the movie, I must admit that I was very uninterested just for the fact that it started out kind of awkward with Malen wandering around in the dessert. But as I continued to watch, it was clear to me that this wandering she was doing was because she was lost. She felt as though she had no direction in life because her father had left her life and all they ever seemed to do was pray that everything would be better again. I guess it was because of all the prayer that they were doing, that Malen felt as though it was all pointless because God had not helped their lives to become better. I think that this concept within the movie was very true to actual life.
I was raised to believe in Catholicism and during times when I feel as though I need help, I find myself praying to God to help guide me through different times. Yet at the same time, I wonder of there really is a God because I feel as though I need to see my prayers being answered. Although I believe in God, I know that I need reassurance that there really is one. I have always seen many of my relatives praying in front of their Santo Ninos by candlelight with rasary in hand and never thought about why they were so compelled to pray so much. This movie allows you to see how important it is to believe in something to get through the day. This belief allows them to look past the pains of living in hopes of something better to come in the future.
When Malen began to see that she really did have the power to heal people, her faith once again returned. This return to faith and her boyfriend’s lack of it, pulled her in two different directions in which she knew she must stay to help her fellow people or to follow her heart. This part of the movie helps to show that various problems will come along making you question as to whether or not there is a God. This is what tests how strong your faith is. Malen had to overcome many of her many of her own problems to keep her faith in God so that she could help all of the people seeking her aid. It was her journey to self-discovery which allowed her to find her faith once more and restore her belief in a religion.
All in all, I felt that this movie was good because I’d like to believe that there really is someone out there that can help the sick through faith in God. That would be such a great thing to be able to do. Yet I feel that until a person is found, we must continue to believe in something greater than ourselves so that we have something to look forward to even at times when it feels there is nothing left. It is the movies like this which help to show you how important it is to believe in something.