''Sakada'' ''(The Tenants,'' also ''Seasonal Sugarcane Workers)'' is a 1976 Philippine social-realist film about the ordeals of sugarcane farmers on the island of

Negros Negros (, , ) is the fourth largest and third most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of . The coastal zone of the southern part of Negros is identified as a site of highest marine biodiversity importance in the Coral Tr ...

in the Philippines. It is "a thinly-veiled criticism of the country's feudal power structure." The film was directed by

Behn Cervantes Benjamín Roberto "Behn" Holcombe Cervantes (August 25, 1938 – August 13, 2013) was a Filipino artist and activist. He was highly regarded as a theater pioneer, teacher, and progressive thinker who was detained multiple times during martial l ...

and written by Oscar Miranda (story) and

Lualhati Bautista Lualhati Torres Bautista (December 2, 1945 – February 12, 2023) was a Filipina writer, liberal activist, and political critic. Her most popular novels are '' Dekada '70'' (1983), '' Bata, Bata... Pa'no Ka Ginawa?'', and '' 'GAPÔ'' (both 198 ...

(screenplay). Music was done by Lucio San Pedro. It starred

Alicia Alonzo Germelina Viana Hernandez (born June 1, 1946), better known by her stage name Alicia Alonzo, is a Filipino actress in movies and television in the Philippines. She is the sister of action star Anthony Alonzo. Career She was a flight attendant ...

Robert Arevalo Robert Ylagan Arevalo (; born Robert Francisco Ylagan; May 6, 1938 – August 10, 2023) was a veteran Filipino film and television actor. Early life Robert Arevalo was born as Robert Francisco Ylagan in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental on May 6, 1 ...

Hilda Koronel Hilda Koronel (born Susan Reid; January 17, 1957) is a MMFF, FAMAS, Luna and Urian award-winning Filipino actress. Born to a Filipino mother and an American father who was a serviceman in Clark Air Base, she has starred in around 45 films, m ...

Pancho Magalona Enrique Gayoso Magalona Jr. (January 22, 1922 – April 7, 1998), professionally known as Pancho Magalona, was a Filipino actor from the 1940s to the 1970s. Early life Born Enrique Gayoso Magalona Jr. in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, he was the ...

Bembol Roco Rafael Aranda Roco, Jr. (born November 20, 1953), professionally known as Bembol Roco, is a Filipino actor whose work ranges from films to television. He is best known for his role as Julio Madiaga in the 1975 film ''Manila in the Claws of Ligh ...

Gloria Romero Gloria Anne Borrego Galla (December 16, 1933 – January 25, 2025), known professionally as Gloria Romero (), was an American-born Filipino actress. Regarded as the "Queen of Philippine Cinema", she appeared in over 250 motion pictures and t ...

Rosa Rosal Florence Danon-Gayda (born Florence Lansang Danon; October 16, 1927), better known as Rosa Rosal (), is a FAMAS award-winning Filipina film actress dubbed as the "original femme fatale of Philippine cinema." She is also known for her work with ...

, and Tony Santos Sr. The movie spent three weeks in theaters before Philippine dictator

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

ordered the military to seize copies of the film. The director was also arrested under the order of Marcos. ''Sakada'' was first screened on Philippine television in 2005. Musical scorer Lutgardo Labad described the film as "a major cinematic coup that unearthed the inhuman conditions of our people then."

Cast

;Cast *

as Aurora del Mundo *

as Salvador "Badong" del Mundo *

as Ester del Mundo *

as Don Manuel Montemayor *

as David *

as Doña Consuelo Montemayor *

as Dolores del Mundo * Tony Santos Sr. as Arsenio "Arsing" del Mundo * Joseph Sytangco as Juan Miguel Montemayor *

Menggie Cobarrubias Domingo "Menggie" Cobarrubias (August 10, 1951 – March 26, 2020) was a Filipino actor who appeared in approximately 200 television shows and films. Cobarrubias received a Gawad Urian Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1979 fil ...

as Andres * Cris Michelena as Alex * Nena Perez Rubio as Nelia * Mervyn Samson as Contreras * Cris Vertido as Father Vic

Plot

The movie follows the life of

Negrense The Negrenses (; ) are the native Cultural identity, cultural group of the Provinces of the Philippines, Philippine provinces of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor. Overview Negrense (English language in the Philippines, English: '' ...

''sakada''s (), or seasonal sugarcane farmers, and the ''asendero''s () who own the

plantations Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco ...

. Unrest ensues after a ''sakada'' is shot to death by one of the plantation's security guards. As the story unfolds, the movie reveals the exploitative feudal agricultural system of the time.

Production

''Sakada'' was the first film by director Behn Cervantes and scriptwriter Lualhati Bautista. It was filmed under time pressure and budget constraints. As a first-time film director, Cervantes said that he had to deal with technical problems. Time and budget constraints prevented the production from doing reshoots. ''Sakada'' was produced and screened in 1976 while the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

was under martial law under Ferdinand Marcos. After ''Sakada's'' third week of screening in Philippine cinemas, copies of the film were seized and the director was arrested and detained under the order of Marcos. After Cervantes' detention, he wrote in a letter to his family dated January 19, 1978, "My movie, ''Sakada'', and my plays, especially the last one, ''Pagsambang'' ''Bayan'', show the exploitative nature of this system, the evils the ruling class commit on the many, the need to change the order of things." ''Sakada'' was first shown on television on June 25, 2005, on ABCinema, three decades after prints were seized by the military from movie theaters. ABCinema aimed to feature "only the best local and foreign films that will make the Filipino audience more aware of their culture." In an interview, Cervantes was asked about how young audiences in 2005 could relate to ''Sakada''. He said society's problems " remain the same and most of the time we change leaders but they're the same dogs with different collars."

Reception

Musical scorer Lutgardo Labad described ''Sakada'' as "a major cinematic coup that unearthed the inhuman conditions of our people then." Film critic Mel Tobias wrote that "any book on Filipino films would be incomplete without mentioning ''Sakada."'' He wrote that the film "was a cry to the people and the government to awaken to the serious labor problems in the Philippines. In the process, it stimulated the often infantile movie producers to acknowledge this unorthodox film, made contrary to the traditional formula of Philippine moviemaking." He also praised the performance of the star-studded cast, particularly of Rosa Rosal, "a versatile actress, homade a sensational comeback in her portrayal of a sentimental widow. She is driven to become a leader of the sakadas in their fight for reform." "The film, with its searing focus on the desperate plight of seasonal sugarcane workers, was an eye-opener for most viewers lulled by the martial law era's siren call of 'the true, the good and the beautiful,'" wrote an ''

Inquirer Inquirer or The Inquirer may refer to: *'' The Inquirer'', a British technology news website * ''The Inquirer'' (Liberia), a Liberian newspaper * ''The Inquirer'' (Perth) a newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, between 1840 and 1855 *'' ...

'' editorial. ''Sakada'' was made at a time of strict censorship, according to Philippine national artist for literature

Bienvenido Lumbera Bienvenido L. Lumbera (April 11, 1932 – September 28, 2021) was a Filipino poet, critic and dramatist. Lumbera is known for his nationalist writing and for his leading role in the Filipinization movement in Philippine literature in the 1960s, ...

, yet "the ingenuity of scriptwriters and directors was able to offer movie-goers works that went beyond entertainment and tackled subject matter with social implications." In the essay "Terror and Culture under Marcos' New Society," Lumbera wrote that ''Sakada'' "exposed the abuses and injustices committed by landlords in cahoots with the military in the suppression of the peasant struggle for higher wages and better treatment." ''Sakada,'' in 1981, won a Dekada Award for Best Film of the Decade.

References

External links