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ANAK

related article: Review by Rina Jimenez-David

This is a story of a mother's anguish and her desperate effort to piece back the broken fragments of her shattered family.

Josie (Vilma Santos ) returns to Manila after working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong for ten years. Her beloved husband, Rudy (Joel Torre) died five years ago. He was a loving and kind husband, but not a good provider. So Josie was forced to go abroad out of financial need.

But her expectation of a joyful reunion with her beloved children is crushed when she realizes that in her absence, her family has fallen apart: her first-born, Carla (Claudine Barretto), has run wild for lack of guidance; her son Michael (Baron Geisler), is in deep trouble in school; and her youngest, Daday (Shiela Junsay), doesn't even know who she is. Josie has become a stranger to her own family. She tries desperately to reach out to her children, but they continue to resist her efforts. Ironically, it is Daday, her youngest who grew up not knowing her, who first embraces her into the family.

Josie's two elder children harbor a deep and painful resentment toward her. She left for abroad despite their pleas for her not to, worse, she did not even bother to come home for their father's funeral.

Unknown to Carla and Michael is their mother's own side of the story. Josie was devastated upon hearing about Rudy's death. Much as she wanted to go home, she wasn't able to because her employers cruelly locked her inside the house. Josie's problems, despite all her efforts, became worse and worse. She loses all her savings in a failed business venture, Michael is kicked out of school, and worst of all, Carla becomes pregnant by one of her many lovers. Josie is horribly aggrieved when Carla, in a fit of helpless fury, throws at Josie's face all her years of pent-up anger and resentment. She blames Josie for her ruined life. Finally, Josie admits defeat. She has failed bitterly in her role as a mother. What is the right thing for her to do? Will she have the courage to reclaim her family, or will she take the easier way out and return to her familiar life in Hong Kong?

pictures and text from: ABS-CBN Star Cinema