第三世界英雄

The film starts with a sneak peek before the camera starts grinding, as we see snippets of behind-the-scenes. The narrator introduces two character, the filmmakers, obsessed with the life of Jose Rizal. When the director starts talking to the camera, at once the set-up is established, it is a film within a film. The director, together with his writer, embarks on a probe in an attempt to capture Dr. Jose Rizal's "cinematic moments" in an investigative story of the Philippines' national hero. As we see the "film-in-progress," the director and writer not only focus on Jose Rizal's life, but his pervading influence in contemporary Philippine society. In a series of visual flashes, it is how rizal has been immortalized by countless filmmakers, historians and writers. His works have been endorsed by the government but censored by the Catholic Church. His heroism elevated him to a demigod by Rizal fanatics, at the same time downplayed by his permanence on the one peso coin. As the director continues to scrutinize Jose Rizal's controversial life, he is faced with too many unanswered questions. The director decides to stop production to re-focus his movie and probe deeper into Rizal's still contestable retraction document. The document contains the hero's statement that revokes all his works and writings, and renounces his affiliation to the Masonry to be able to go back to the Catholic fold. The director finds this unacceptable, knowing that a character like Rizal - who believed himself to be a born hero - would sign a document that takes back everything he stands for.