Daily Guardian: Madness in a time of imperialism

 

Daily Guardian: Madness in a time of imperialism

 

Madness in a time of imperialism

March 13, 2026

By John Anthony S. Estolloso

 

Hilda Koronel is ‘Sisa’.

 

With a sly nod to the character from Rizal’s novel, her character loses herself to the follies of the narrative’s zeitgeist: imperialism, genocide and reconcentration, discrimination, and the degradation of women.

 

Jun Lana’s 2025 cinematic historical fiction reimagines a part of our history which seem to be replayed in parts of the world today. Riding the wave of resurgent imperialisms, ‘Sisa’ nitpicks the price with which these are paid for. Set during the pacification stage of the American occupation of the country in the 1900s, the film narrates an overlooked side of that militarized story, one inflicted on ordinary civilians.

 

At the film’s onset, Koronel walks distractedly into an American concentration camp of distracted people, mostly women who have lost everything: husbands, brothers, sons, their sense of identity and community, and eventually, personal dignity. She mingles in and immerses into the sordid conditions of the camp. To the rest, she is just another woman deranged by the brutalities of war. Listless and lost, she rambles around, sans name and identity, until the moniker of Rizal’s madwoman was attached to her by the incarcerated reconcentradas. She becomes Sisa, maddened by the madness of her times.

 

We never know her real name. As the eponymous character, Koronel lends an unflinching gravitas to the narrative. She is mad, in all senses of the word – yet not insane as to lose sense of the world. In her interactions with the people she encounters, she comes to terms with realities that burn through principles and demolishes them, one epiphany and truth at a time.

 

The film develops into a simulacrum of the machinations of imperialism: where the oppressed are pitted against each other as a means of establishing the colonizer’s dominance, and where futile resistance is sublimated as madness. In a frenzied climax to the plot, the women fall on each other to protect personal interests, the physicality of their violence resonant of the futility of escape from their oppressions – and Sisa becomes the main witness to this drama.

 

Eugene Domingo as long-suffering mother Delia somehow provides a foil to the madness; she suffers patiently through deaths and drudgeries – only to succumb to this madness at the end. Jennica Garcia as the alluring Leonor is both sultry and demure in her tryst with the enemy: infatuated with the camp commandant, she finds no shame nor sorrow in professing that America is Big Brother come to help. But she is no Judith hellbent in redeeming her people; she becomes an accomplice to the act of colonialism which still manifests itself today in the Filipinos’ obsession of whiteness and things stateside and Americana.

 

Perhaps it is trite to call the film as another cinematic commentary of the times – but there lies the paradoxical rub. As before as now, there is the interrogation of ever-present social themes: of gender roles – that women scrub the floors, cook the meals, do the laundry, and accomplish every menial chore while men do the yapping on the table; of the foul performative of hegemony where imperialist states play kingmakers in ‘toppling dictatorships’ and replacing them with puppet governments; that the colonizer can physically take advantage of the colonized and get away it.

 

There are no heroines in the story; there is no redemption either, no deus ex machina to save the characters and enshrine the narrative as some noble Greek tragedy; there was only madness piled upon madness. At the end of it all, it is women who are left to clean up the mess. As symbolic finale, there must be a purgation of iniquities, even at the cost of a holocaust. In the last few minutes of the film, all male characters are retching with poison-laced food and the refectory is drenched with gasoline. In ending, Sisa holds aloft a lit quinque, in sardonic imitation of Lady Liberty with her torch. There is no self-immolation of flames closing the scene – but of what need is fire when all of them are already too scorched with colonial mentality?

 

In a time when American imperialist tendencies are resurgent, when American bombs are raining somewhere among civilians, in the name of liberty and democracy, one is left to wonder how many Sisas are wandering listlessly around amid the butchery and violence, looking for lost fathers, brothers, and sons.

 

This country went through that hell before. Then as now, the situation is insane.

 

(The writer is a language and literature teacher in one of the private schools of the city. The film poster is from Reddit.)

 

Link: https://dailyguardian.com.ph/madness-in-a-time-of-imperialism/

MEGA: In Sisa, Women Navigate a World of Disappointment, Trust, and Solidarity

 

MEGA: In Sisa, Women Navigate a World of Disappointment, Trust, and Solidarity

 

Part revenge thriller, part feminist retelling, Sisa shows us that sometimes, women can only trust their fellow women. 

 

By Rafael Bautista

March 13, 2026

 

Right off the bat, it should be noted that, contrary to the movie’s title, Sisa is not about the fictional character in Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangére. Instead, the title comes from the fact that it is the name the townsfolk give Hilda Koronel’s character when she wanders into their community in a direct reference to the novel’s madwoman.

 

Still, even though they are separate characters, their plight is similar in essence. Sisa in the novel goes crazy after losing her children and experiencing abuse, while the movie’s Sisa fakes her craziness to disguise her act of revenge against the people who took everything from her.

 

In Sisa’s quest to do just that, it’s the women in the community who prove to be her biggest allies. Director Jun Robles Lana’s women-focused revisionist tale puts the spotlight on female victimhood in how its all-women lead characters carry their own crosses and ultimately can only rely on themselves to get the job done and attain the justice they desire. Through their pain, strength, and sacrifice, the women of Sisa go through it as they discover that their freedom, or at the very least their retribution, can only be brought about by themselves.

 

The Madwoman

 

​Set during the final days of the Philippine-American War, the movie tells the story of Sisa, an elderly woman who stumbles into a concentration camp run by American soldiers. There, the village’s women, whose husbands were killed or arrested, reluctantly serve the Americans as cooks, maids, and the like.

 

The women of the community call her Sisa because of how she can’t talk properly and is prone to emotional outbursts. In reality, Sisa is a spy for the resistance who is helping plan a major attack against the American garrison in the community. It is here where we meet our main cast of characters, women who all have their stories to tell.

 

​There’s Delia (Eugene Domingo), Sisa’s caretaker of sorts, whose side comments about being under American rule make for some of the best lines in the film. Ofelia (Tanya Gomez) deals with the grief of her husband, who served as the village chief, being arrested by the Americans, but eventually rises to the occasion to be the new community head with the help of Sisa’s encouragement. Then there’s Leonor (Jennica Garcia), a young widow who has a not-so-secret relationship with the leader of the camp, Commander Harrison.

 

​It’s through these women and more that color Sisa’s story as viewers learn about the lengths they go to continue with their lives and just survive. But their experiences don’t hide their shared grief in how the Americans took away their husbands, and, more importantly, their freedom in becoming servants to the soldiers.

 

Their Female Rage

 

Despite overtures to “educate” the Filipinas in the American way of life, the women are still being held captive, even if they aren’t physically tied up. Despite not fighting in the war, Filipino women are the ones who have to pick up the pieces and find some semblance of normalcy once the dust settles.

 

It is in this context that their grief transforms into action. Instead of wallowing in their plight, the women learn to rise with a newfound strength. Sisa serves as the spark to light the fire as her steadfast presence and quiet bravery wake up the community’s muted apathy into a collective act of resistance.

 

​Slowly but surely, the movie explores how these women band together to have each other’s backs and eventually fight back against their oppressors in a show of female rage. We already know what happens at the end of the Filipino-American War, so the movie explores how a group of Filipinas is pushed to the edge in a world that doesn’t have their best interests at heart.

 

Their anger is palpable, especially when the movie takes a shocking turn in its final act that highlights how women will always get the short end of the stick, no matter what they do. These women aren’t soldiers. Even Sisa was pushed to become a spy because of a tragic incident. The faith they put in other people proves fruitless, as they realize that their oppression and marginalization aren’t just limited to their Western captors. In their own ways, the women are faced with the reality that their trust, especially in men, becomes their undoing. 

 

Ultimately, their quest for revenge and retribution isn’t just driven by their dislike towards the Americans, but also by how they are constantly let down at every step of the way. The anger is real, which pushes them to commit drastic acts. While viewers can debate the morals of their actions and whether the women were justified in doing what they did, it does come from a real place. These women use the fact that they are seen as invisible and deemed disposable by society to their advantage.

 

​It makes for one of the most compelling Filipino movies of 2026 yet, and a reminder that no matter the time or place, female solidarity will always be a powerful source of bravery, strength, and hope.

 

Link: https://mega-asia.com/women/sisa-women-disappointment-trust-solidarity/

 

ABS-CBN: Jun Robles Lana praises Hilda Koronel’s dedication in ‘Sisa’ as actress returns to US

 

ABS-CBN: Jun Robles Lana praises Hilda Koronel’s dedication in ‘Sisa’ as actress returns to US

 

ABS-CBN News

Published Mar 13, 2026 11:43 AM PHT            

 

MANILA — Director Jun Robles Lana paid tribute to veteran actress Hilda Koronel in a social media post Thursday, recalling moments from the production and promotion of their historical film “Sisa” as the actress prepares to return to the United States.

 

In a Facebook post, Lana described Koronel as both a “legend” of Philippine cinema and a private person who prefers a quiet life away from the spotlight.

 

“In a few days, Hilda Koronel flies back to the US. Most know her as a pillar of Philippine cinema,” Lana wrote. “But to those who know her best, she is simply Susan,” referring to the actress by her real name.

 

Koronel returned to the Philippines to film “Sisa,” marking her first movie appearance in more than a decade.

 

Directed by Lana, “Sisa” is a historical thriller set during the final years of the Philippine-American War and follows a woman who survives a massacre and later seeks revenge while pretending to be insane.

 

The film had its world premiere at the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia in November 2025 and opened in Philippine cinemas last March 4.

 

In his post, Lana shared anecdotes from filming in Tarlac, where principal photography took place during the height of summer. Despite the extreme heat, the director said Koronel remained unfazed.

 

He recalled one instance when the production needed to capture a shot atop a distant hill before sunset.

 

“I asked if she was game,” Lana wrote. “Without hesitation, she started running. We all panicked and ran after her, afraid she might trip. She reached the top. We got the shot.”

 

Lana also praised Koronel’s acting, describing her screen presence as the emotional center of the film.

 

“To say her eyes are cinema is no exaggeration,” he said, adding that some actors perform a role while others leave performances that endure.

 

The director also remembered lighter moments during the film’s international festival run in Tallinn, where he said the two shared drinks in a bar before strolling through the city’s Christmas market.

 

“Sisa” has continued to gain recognition overseas, recently winning the Best Screenplay award at the Fantasporto International Film Festival in Portugal.

 

Koronel, known for classic performances in films such as “Insiang” and “Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag,” has long been regarded as one of the defining actresses of Philippine cinema.

 

For Lana, working with her was both a professional and personal milestone.

 

“Working with her hasn’t just inspired my filmmaking,” he wrote. “It has changed the way I think about what it means to endure.”

 

Link: https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/showbiz/movies-series/2026/3/13/jun-robles-lana-praises-hilda-koronel-s-dedication-in-sisa-as-actress-returns-to-us-1143

 

International Cinephile Society: Review: Sisa (Jun Robles Lana)

 

International Cinephile Society: Review: Sisa (Jun Robles Lana)

Nicol Latayan

March 17, 2026

 

“Like a dish left to simmer before being served, the film is patient, waiting for the perfect moment before it raises the stakes.”

 

Probably one of the most notable characters in Philippine literature is Sisa from Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal. Driven by extreme poverty and the hopelessness caused by the disappearance of her sons, Sisa descends into madness and is often seen wandering around town in search of them. Jun Robles Lana’s latest film of the same title isn’t about the novel’s character; instead, he reimagines her by writing a complex female figure dealing with a different type of madness.

 

Set in 1902, in the aftermath of the Philippine-American War, American forces control local civilians by placing them in different concentration camps to separate them from rebellious groups determined to fight against the American presence in the country. A woman appears out of nowhere, wandering through the village and looking unthreatened even when confronted by an American guard. She does not know her own name and is eventually called Sisa — arguably the name given to any madwoman in Philippine culture. The women in the camp gradually take her in and she helps them with their daily activities.

 

However, the film does not focus on teasing what drove Sisa to madness. It is eventually revealed that Sisa’s madness is simply an act. To avoid drawing attention to herself while plotting revenge, she pretends to be a harmless madwoman. Quietly and methodically, she moves pieces into place as she crafts the perfect comeuppance against the American conquerors, together with the other women in her barrio.

 

There is a certain restraint you feel while watching the film, which seems like a deliberate directorial choice from Lana. At times it feels extremely claustrophobic, as we watch these women go about their daily tasks inside the camp while being controlled in every move they make. But like a dish left to simmer before being served, the film is patient, waiting for the perfect moment before it raises the stakes. It is precisely this patience that makes the last act particularly satisfying.

 

The veteran Hilda Koronel essentially comes out of retirement for her first feature acting role in 14 years, and it is easy to understand why this material served as her comeback. She portrays the titular character with a balance of grit and grace, her eyes channelling both the pain and rage of her situation as well as the courage and conviction needed to carry out her plan. It even brings to mind someone like Geraldine Page in The Beguiled, especially once the final act kicks in.

 

Twelve years ago, Lana wrote and directed Barber’s Tales, and in a way, Sisa feels like its spiritual companion. Both films place women front and center, with the lead characters taking matters into their own hands in a broken society that constantly tests them. It is also fitting that this film is being released during International Women’s Day season. Sisa is by no means a perfect character, but it is satisfying — and admirable — to see how she takes control of her own narrative. After all, nothing is more dangerous and impactful than a woman willing to do whatever it takes to claim her identity.

 

Link: https://icsfilm.org/reviews/review-sisa-jun-robles-lana/

 

#InternationalCinephileSociety #ICS #NicolLatayan

Tatler: Movie review: in ‘Sisa’, Jun Robles Lana gives a madwoman her reckoning

 

Tatler: Movie review: in ‘Sisa’, Jun Robles Lana gives a madwoman her reckoning

By Angela Nicole Guiral

March 12, 2026

 

Set inside an American-run camp during the Philippine Revolution, ‘Sisa’ by Jun Robles Lana places women at the centre of a story usually told through soldiers and generals (warning: spoilers ahead)

 

After Jun Robles Lana’s recent success with Call Me Mother, the director has returned with a film that is a lot more unsettling. Sisa unfolds during the waning years of the Philippine Revolution, when the ‘benevolent assimilation’ of the Americans corralled civilians into reconcentration camps. Into one such camp wanders a woman whose origins remain obscure. The villagers, mostly widows, begin to call her Sisa, after the tragic mother from Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere.

 

Almost everyone who went to high school in the Philippines knows the name Sisa—a usual shorthand for maternal grief pushed to madness. Lana’s film takes that familiar figure and gives it a little twist. This Sisa, played by the returning screen legend Hilda Koronel, appears disoriented and fragile at first glance. The villagers assume the war has broken her mind. They do not suspect the secret she carries into their fragile community.

 

Sisa runs for close to two hours. A personal metric tends to surface when watching films nowadays: how often the phone appears during the screening. In this case, it remained inside the bag. The imagery pulls everyone’s attention. Some sequences feel almost painterly, the camp bathed in still compositions. Other scenes are more unstable. The jagged framing moves as though sharing the character’s mental state. Sometimes, it feels closer to psychological horror than to conventional historical drama.

 

Sound deepens the unease. Bird calls and ambient noises drift in, feeling strangely displaced. “The things that you can hear, they’re not from the Philippines—like the birds, they’re not native. The sounds are actually quite distorted,” shares Lana during a talkback session. “Because I wanted the audience to be like, ‘Is that a wig?’ Even Sisa’s wig sits between performance and artifice. It’s like a symbol—she’s carrying all her secrets in that wig. I want to have that hyper-awareness when watching the film.” Everything was intentional. “For a country that easily forgets, remembering itself is a form of resistance. And I wanted the audience to be part of that resistance.”

 

The same thinking shapes the film’s visuals. Aspect ratios expand and contract, occasionally resembling the boxed frame of early cinema. Night scenes were filmed during daylight, giving the darkness a faintly unreal texture. The seams are visible by design. Lana wants the viewer to notice them.

 

At the centre of the film stands Koronel. Her portrayal carries the weight of a performer who has spent decades shaping Filipino cinema. During the talkback, she explained why the role drew her out of retirement. “The script was fascinating,” she said with a laugh. “And I loved that I killed a lot of people here.” The line drew applause in a room full of Filipinos (food for thought: what would have been the experience with Americans in the same room?)

 

The ensemble surrounding Koronel includes Eugene Domingo, Tanya Gomez and Jennica Garcia, among others. Domingo brings a sharp, dramatic presence that many viewers already recognise beneath her comedic reputation. Garcia, meanwhile, holds her ground beside veterans, portraying a woman whose fragile romance emerges from fear and desperation. She explained during the talkback that she thinks her character, Leonor, genuinely believed Commander Harrison loved her. “I think that when you’re in the mountains, and you’re not mentally functioning well anymore, just a bit of care, a bit of food and safety given to you… It’s hard not to fall for someone.”

 

Violence appears in the film, though not in the way audiences expect. Lana keeps much of it off-screen. Instead of battlefields, the drama unfolds in kitchens and dining rooms, the domain of women, in most literature. “The battlefield happens in the kitchen. I wanted them to have power [there], in the dining room, using pots and these little things that we take for granted.” He also explained, “We don’t have to see the violence because I feel that you can see it in Sisa’s eyes. You can see the violence in how these women look at each other. So, there was really no need to show the violence.”

 

This shift in perspective becomes the film’s highlight. Wars are often remembered through generals and declarations. Here, the story belongs to women who would rarely enter official records. Women who are reduced to mere footnotes. Their lives reveal a harsher truth about occupation.

 

By the closing scenes, the name Sisa carries a whole new meaning. The wandering madwoman is so much deeper than what we initially expected her to be. Madness, in Lana’s telling, may be a disguise. Or clarity. Either way, the character emerges from the film with a presence that Philippine history rarely grants women who lived through its wars.

 

Link: https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/entertainment/sisa-movie-review-jun-robles-lana

 

#Tatler #TatlerPhilippines #SisaMovie #HildaKoronel #JunRoblesLana #AngelaNicoleGuiral

Vogue Philippines: Hilda Koronel Is Not Done Telling Stories About Survival

 

Vogue Philippines: Hilda Koronel Is Not Done Telling Stories About Survival

By Aylli Cortez

 

Photographs By Mark Nicdao

Styling By Anz Hizon

March 12, 2026

 

Multi-awarded actress Hilda Koronel brings decades of strong, woman-led storytelling into her latest leading role, Sisa.

 

Hilda Koronel is no stranger to playing survivors on screen. Following her film debut at age 13, she rose to acclaim in Lino Brocka’s Santiago!, a war drama set during the Japanese occupation. As Cristina, a girl left severely burned and unable to speak after a bomb blast, Koronel had no lines, and portrayed her role through physicality. The performance earned her the spot for Best Supporting Actress at the 1971 FAMAS Awards, making her the youngest ever winner in the category.

 

Fifty-five years later, Koronel returns from an over-decade-long hiatus in the titular role of Sisa, a historical thriller set during the American occupation. Her approach to embodying characters has stayed the same, but she now enjoys the freedom to choose her roles. “I would always look at the script first, and I would want something different,” she tells Vogue Philippines. “Sisa is totally different from other roles that I have done. So I want something exciting, something new, especially at my age.”

 

Written and directed by Jun Robles Lana, Sisa finds Koronel in a fugue state, crossing into a fortified camp where a group of imprisoned Filipina women name her after the “madwoman” in Jose Rizal’s novel. When the plot begins to unravel, the film itself seems to interrogate this assessment, as one scene offers glimpses into Sisa’s past: the cries of family, a call to arms, and a burning home.

 

At her Vogue Philippines shoot, Koronel recalls her discussions with Lana and why the role resonates. “I see in Sisa what was happening to the Philippines in 1902, during the Philippine-American War. She’s the embodiment of what was transpiring, what was happening to our people,” she shares. “I learned a lot of things from direk, explaining to me na pinag-aralan niya ito for how many years [that he researched this for many years]… And I said, ang dami kong hindi natutunan sa eskwelahan yan [there’s so much that I didn’t learn in school].”

 

In both films, Koronel is faced with the cost of living after her loved ones, bearing direct witness to their deaths as victims of war. Through her gaze, audiences feel the depth of a woman enraged, grieving, and gripping to sanity in a world gone mad.

 

Since she began in the ‘70s, Koronel has made a name for herself through raw portrayals of women seeking justice amid gender-based oppression and social adversity. Yet, there was a time when she hadn’t dreamed of becoming an actress, or of going by a different name.

 

Before she stepped into her screen identity, the veteran actress was born Susan Reid to a Filipino mother and an American father, a serviceman at the Clark Air Base in Pampanga, and was raised by her aunt in Pasay. She recounts the day she was discovered at 12 years old: “I was thrust into it,” she remarks. “I wasn’t looking for it. I guess it was just fate that somebody saw me in LVN Studios, walking around, and asked me if I wanted to be an actress.”

 

At her aunt’s encouragement, she became an exclusive contract talent for Lea Productions and adopted a moniker to distinguish herself from the ‘60s box-office star, Susan Roces. These decisions weren’t entirely hers to make, but as her career grew throughout her teenage years, Koronel learned to become her own staunch advocate. Among her non-negotiables, she insisted that she would balance acting with studying rather than dropping out of school. In a recent interview with Snooky Serna, she mentions writing her own contracts, as well as using her weekly television show Hilda as a personal training ground.

 

The drama series, which aired for five and a half years, saw her in constant collaboration with director and National Artist for Film Lino Brocka, with whom she credits for guiding her through emotionally tense roles at a young age. “I grew up with him. He taught me everything I know,” she says, the fondness clear in her tone. “It wasn’t just a mentor thing. He knew what my life was… All my sorrows, my fears, my anger, things that I have been through.”

 

The trust they established allowed Koronel to draw emotions from personal life experiences, translating them into powerful performances for the screen. She recalls the gentle way Brocka would sit down and brief her before a scene, sharing his vision for how it could play out while inviting her to give “more than a hundred percent” and make the role her own. “He knows yung kapasidad ko [what my capacity is], that I can still give more to it, even though I did not believe it myself. But he did. So that gave me courage more than anything else.”

 

Today, Koronel remains largely engrained in the public’s memory for two of Lino Brocka’s works: the 1975 social realist film Manila in the Claws of Light, where she plays the entrapped probinsyana Ligaya Paraiso, whom Julio Madiaga (Bembol Roco) travels to Manila in search for; and the 1976 drama Insiang, which sees the 18-year-old actress in the titular role, plotting her freedom from a household shared with a resentful mother (Mona Lisa) and her manipulative boyfriend (Ruel Vernal) in a story that was first presented as a Hilda episode two years prior.

 

Shot at Tondo’s Smokey Mountain, a 20-hectare landfill that enveloped the shores of Manila Bay until 1995, Insiang follows a young woman whose determination to survive is hardened by a series of verbal, physical, and sexual assaults. As Insiang weaves through muddy streets and makeshift shanties, her body cast against a gray sky or a glaring sun, she appears as a woman on fire, on the brink of realizing who she is and what she is truly capable of.

 

Koronel won Best Actress at both the FAMAS Awards and the Metro Manila Film Fest for Insiang, which became the first Philippine film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival in France. In 2013, Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project led the restoration of the two Brocka films in partnership with the Film Development Council of the Philippines, and both titles joined the Criterion Collection by 2018.

 

While the acclaimed actress counts versatile genres among her oeuvre, starring in romance films like Mike De Leon’s Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising (a set she says she’d love to revisit) to feminist ensemble comedies like Crying Ladies and Working Girls, the roles she keeps coming back for seem to be embedded in stories of resistance, reclamation, and women empowerment.

 

Even after leaving the industry and moving to California in 2012, she continued to receive offers every year, but held on to her husband’s reminder that she should pick the ones she really wanted. For her first role since Olivia Lamasan’s The Mistress, which earned her a Luna Award for Best Supporting Actress, she returns to Philippine cinemas with Sisa, alongside cast members Eugene Domingo, Jennica Garcia, Jorrybell Agoto, and more.

 

Until now, the character of Sisa both excites and teaches her. “Gusto niyang makaganti. Gusto niyang maganda yung kanyang pamilya, yung kanyang country. And gusto niyang madagok yung mga oppressors niya [She wants retribution. She wants her family and her country to thrive. And she wants to overcome her oppressors]. I love it,” Koronel admits with a smile. “And you’ll find these are strong women na nandyan talagang lumaban [who are really there to fight].”

 

In the film, Sisa becomes a binding force among the women, whose division is best captured by Delia (Domingo), a grieving mother in sharp opposition to the American soldiers, and Leonor (Garcia), a widow entangled in a relationship with the commander. When certain truths come to light, horror morphs into honesty and a sense of solidarity, the Filipina ensemble uniting to choose dignity on their own terms, and Sisa remaining Sisa, now with ownership of her name.

 

As the period drama begins screening at over 175 cinemas nationwide, the celebrated actress extends the film’s message to women around the world: “Kayang-kaya nila yan. Tayo mga babae [They are capable of anything. Us women],” she remarks. “And dapat pagsamasama tayo, nagtutulungan tayo. Hindi tayo dapat nag-aaway-away, nasisiraan. [And we should always stick together, help each other out. Not quarrel or try to destroy each other].”

 

It’s a vision she hopes will continue to materialize, especially as Philippine cinema expands and sees Filipino actresses and directors gain wider, even global recognition. Because after decades in the industry, Hilda Koronel is not done telling stories about survival, but she is done letting others make her decisions for her. In a career of singular, unforgettable roles, she remembers the path it took to get there, and wherever she’s headed next, she’s taking us with her.

 

“I’m not just a storyteller. I make the story come alive. That’s my purpose,” she says. “So when you’re watching me, I’m going to bring you in. I’m going to make you cry. I’m going to make you laugh. I’m going to make you angry. And that’s who Sisa is, and that’s who I am.”

 

By AYLLI CORTEZ. Photographs by MARK NICDAO. Video by LIAM R. TANGAN and LEVY DY. Stylist and Sittings Editor: ANZ HIZON. Makeup: Zidjian Floro. Hair: Gabriel Villegas. Deputy Editor: Trickie Lopa. Digital Associate Editor: Chelsea Sarabia. Producer: Julian Rodriguez. Media Channels Producer: Angelo Tantuico. Media Channels Video Lead: Wainah Joson. Digital Multimedia Artist: Bea Lu. Digital Content Writer: Daphne Sagun. Assistant Photographers: Arsan Sulser Hofileña and Crisaldo Soco. Photo File Manager: John Philip Nicdao. Senior Lighting Technician: Villie James Bautista.

 

Link: https://vogue.ph/spotlight/hilda-koronel-profile-sisa/