Search Film, Company, People...

PILGRIM LOVERS

GAYUMA

By Alvin YAPAN

VIM YAPAN / ALEM CHUA PRODUCTIONS - as PROD / FIN

Romance - Completed 2011

A possessed statue of the Child Jesus instructs the introverted sacristan, Delfin, to prepare a love potion for his crush, Carla. Unsure of Carla’s love for him, Delfin descends into a deep sleep. Carla goes on a pilgrimage to the heart of the mountain in the hopes of overturning the potion.

- Year of production
- 2011
- Genres
- Romance, Art - Culture, Drama
- Countries
- PHILIPPINES
- Languages
- FILIPINO
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 84 mn
- Director(s)
- Alvin YAPAN
- Writer(s)
- Alvin YAPAN
- Cast
- Mercedes CABRAL, Kalil ALMONTE
- Synopsis
- Fr. Jess is asked to exorcise a possessed statue of the Child Jesus. An unknown spirit has possessed the Sto. Niño who is now speaking through the deceased body of Mang Tomas. Delfin, the church’s sacristan, accompanies Fr. Jess. After a failed attempt at exorcism, the Sto. Niño confronts Delfin. Apparently, Delfin has feelings for Carla, a rich Manila-educated girl, who volunteers for the parish. That night, the Sto. Niño appears to Delfin in a nightmare revealing to him a love potion using the Niño’s own hair.
  
  Delfin learns the story of the Sto. Niño statue from Fr. Jess. Roman, a rich haciendero, was claiming the land where the family of Mang Tomas lives and farms. However, the family refused to leave since the land was handed down to them by generations before. A storm came wiping out the house of the family killing everyone except Tomas who was able to survive hanging on a tree, thanks to the help of the voice of a small child. The voice, he believed, was that of the Child Jesus.
  
  Fr. Jess also revealed that the young Tomas was secretly seeing the only daughter of Roman, Estela. Furious, Roman locked his daughter up in their house forbidding her to see the poor Tomas. As a protest, Estela vowed to the Sto. Niño to never cut her hair and became a nun, if she cannot marry Tomas. Tomas carved out a portion of a tree for the statue of the Sto. Niño using Estela’s hair as the Niño’s.
  
  Eventually, Delfin sneaks into the house of Mang Tomas one night. He cuts the hair of the Niño but not without suffering beatings from the sons of Mang Tomas who thought that Delfin was a robber.
  
  Carla drinks the potion Delfin prepared. She then assents to all the advances of Delfin, even agreeing to elope with him. The boy could not believe his luck until he is no longer certain whether Carla really loves him. Is it all because of the concoction’s potency? Delfin descends into a deep sleep of paranoia, from which no medical science could wake him.
  
  When Carla discovers the reason behind Delfin’s deep sleep, she vows to break the potion’s spell, certain with herself that it was not the potion that made her fall for Delfin. She visits the possessed Sto. Niño. The statue tells her that Delfin could only be woken from his sleep by bathing his body in clear spring water mixed with gugo she’s going to cure her own hair with. The clear spring water she’s going to find from a waterfall inside the heart of the mountain. She must do the journey alone carrying by herself the weight of Delfin’s body as Delfin carried the weight of his love for her. But the Niño warns her. When the potion is finally washed out of her and Delfin’s body, would she still love the poor boy?
  
  Resolved to find a cure for her lover’s deep slumber, she goes on a pilgrimage on foot bringing with her the unconscious Delfin laid out on a bamboo bed. She finds the mountain with the aid of local rebels and the St. Elmo’s fire. After Delfin regains consciousness, Carla declares her love for him.