Melinda Santiago (Alessandra de Rossi) is a fresh graduate of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Despite her mother's goading to migrate to America, she packs up and goes to a small village called Malawig, where she will replace a teacher who is moving to Singapore to work as a domestic helper.

Melinda instantly wins her students' hearts. In time, she learns the workings of the school. The OIC, Mrs. Pantalan (Dexter Doria), would sell buko ice candies to the students for extra money. A fellow teacher would still spell the plural form of potato as 'potatos' and speak in broken English despite having attended countless teaching seminars. Another teacher would bring students to her house and make them do her chores.

Melinda also sees for herself the shortcomings of the school: a schoolroom gutted by fire is still in ruins, forcing them to hold classes in makeshift rooms or even outdoors. Books are falling apart and there aren't enough of them to go around.

The students are a big challenge as well. Most of them would be absent from class because they've been kept home to help out with chores. A female student is told by her mother to stop studying because girls simply grow up to get married and have babies. A boy is told that learning how to read and write is enough and that his future and fortune lie with the farm. Those who dare to imagine a better life for themselves are laughed at because "only the rich can afford to dream". Melinda sees an upcoming choral competition as a chance to inspire and uplift the students.

Against the howling protests of the parents and the indifference of the faculty, she proceeds to train the students, eventually leading them to an expected (by the audience, at least) victory, and in the process letting them realize that their dreams matter and their voices must be heard.

Lessons

Filipino movies that are often billed as excellent are usually 'socially relevant', portraying the harshness of life in the Philippines. While some people will keen and wail about us having too many films of that type already, the fact that we still have films discussing many different issues is simply proof that there are other problems left to face, and all remain to be dished out to the general public.

Mga Munting Tinig touches on so many issues that one wouldn't know where to look first. From a small dip into rural insurgency, which made the film feel almost like Bagong Buwan at some points, to the plight of Filipino teachers, the picture of the current Philippine scene is almost complete. While these problems are certainly part of reality, the film could have done away with a few topics in order to explore the more glaring issues in the story.

There was also nothing subtle about the film's approach to the issues. The characters themselves spout the details of their problems, from the teachers getting their salaries later than they should to Luz's (Amy Austria) explanation to her sons about why their father is a rebel, without leaving much room for the audience to identify the issues for themselves.

Interestingly enough, the attitude of the parents in the film contrasts sharply with those of the parents in the documentary by the Foundation for Worldwide People Power, Inc., the organization sponsoring the premiere of the film. In the movie, the parents would usually opt to pull their children out of class in order to help with the farm, dismissing education as mere fancy book-learning. In the documentary, the parents expressed hope that their children finish high school.

The film slowly (too slowly, if I may say so) builds up to the choral competition. The constant rehearsals, the refining of the children's voices, and Melinda bringing the children together through music makes the movie seem like The Sound of Music without the happy bike rides and picnics. Yet it's exactly what the characters, even the village, needed: a small beacon of hope and the chance to dream despite the odds. The lessons, the realizations of dreams -- this is where the film is at its best.

Stellar

Alessandra de Rossi has been heaped with nothing but praises for her performance in this movie. I was actually hoping that she was given more to do than just smile and be constantly supportive and sympathetic. Her character Melinda, while being young and idealistic, also doesn't display much gumption when confronting Mrs. Pantalan about the shabby management of the school.

Dexter Doria is a riot as the enterprising and disillusioned school principal. Amy Austria and Gina Alajar are stunning in their secondary roles, playing the motherly roles for which they're being known recently. The children in this movie, played mostly by veritable unknowns, turned out good performances without overacting or resorting to the cute-kid bag of acting tricks.

Ambitious?

In the program preceding the screening of Mga Munting Tinig, Gil Portes described this movie as "his boldest one yet." As a small titter went through the back of the room, no doubt created by those who might have misunderstood what he meant, Portes explained that it is "not the usual film...no melodramatic crying or gratuitous sex."

How right he was. Mga Munting Tinig is yet another one of those films that are good but still don't leave majority of the movie-going public breathless, since most people still prefer inane comedies and cloying dramas. It's unfortunate because it's a movie with so much to say yet it might have a hard time making people listen.

Hailed as one of this year's 10 Asian classics by the American Film Institute, Mga Munting Tinig was met with rave reviews at the recently-concluded Toronto International Film Festival. The creators of this film are also eyeing an Oscar nomination for the Best Foreign Film category.

Is that too much of an unreachable dream? If the movie teaches us anything, first and foremost, it's that we're all free to dream and we all deserve to be heard. And besides, an even bigger dream would be to actually entice a lot of Filipino moviegoers to see this film.