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‘And So It Begins’ Review: An Uninvolving Portrait of Filipino Politics
Focusing on Leni Robredo's presidential campaign, Ramona S. Diaz provides a shiny, superficial look at the 2022 Philippine elections.
After a contentious vice presidency — she was elected on a separate ticket from Duterte, as is common in the Philippines — Robredo’s campaign kicks off with grassroots activism awash in pink apparel, often on a scale so large that overhead shots of her rallies barely fit within the frame. Apart from its handful of scenes about the silencing of Filipino journalists (like Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, the subject of “A Thousand Cuts”), “And So It Begins” is rarely concerned with the make-or-break political minutiae upon which movements are built. This forces the movie’s secondary subjects, like journalists at Rappler (Maria Ressa’s website) to engage in discussions with one another, or hold seminars for the camera, about the insidious nature of modern far-right campaigns and other contemporary hurdles to democracy.
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