Before helming the critically acclaimed historical biopic movies, “Heneral Luna” and “Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral,” director Jerrold Tarog directed this serene and simple bittersweet love story.
“Sana Dati” is the final film to Tarog’s very successful 'Camera' trilogy. A film series that illustrates the contrast between the reality in front of a camera and behind it.
"Sana Dati" premieres at the 9th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and on its awards night, the movie bagged multiple trophies including Best Picture and Best Director for Jerrold Tarog. The movie also won Best Supporting Actor for TJ Trinidad's performance, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Original Music, and Best Production Design.
The story of “Sana Dati” is simple. Andrea (Lovi Poe) is set to marry Robert (TJ Trinidad), a wealthy politician. On the day of the wedding, Andrea meets Dennis (Paolo Avelino), an enigmatic young videographer who reminds her of her ex-lover. The man she truly loves.
This Tarog masterpiece exhibits how thin and long true love can stretch and extend. In just one hour and a half, the movie was able to illustrate how thin love is for conceited people. For them, love can be taught to oneself to a point that it becomes unnoticeably fake. But for others like Andrea, love is everlasting. It can stretch far too long and can even transcend beyond time and space.
Truly, the love story of this movie is a bittersweet retrospection of the "if only" of life. But Tarog did not only used the love story element of the film to be sentimental. He used it to conduct a character study on Andrea's mental and emotional state by painting us a picture of her constricting life influenced by her fear of the future, and longing of the past.
Tarog's riveting movie benefits a lot from TJ Trinidad, Lovi Poe, and Paolo Avelino's performance. Their nuances and subtleties make everything seems realistic and natural.
Indeed, "Sana Dati" deserved everything it has achieved. It might not be grandiose, ambitious, or flashy but it’s full of zeal and emotions. I recommend checking this movie out.
4/5
