“Above the Clouds” shows filmmaker Pepe Diokno again in fine form as a storyteller. Premiering his sophomore effort at Cinemalaya to enthusiastic applause, Pepe Diokno looked a little relieved as congratulations and compliments were sent his way. But the journey of “Above the Clouds” isn’t over –it has yet to be distributed to appreciative audiences in the Philippines, its home country. Undertaking the writing and directing of the full-length feature wasn’t easy, since the initial flush of success he had experienced with “Engkwentro”, which premiered at Cinemalaya in 2009. But Diokno wanted to make a film for his grandmother, who couldn’t watch the latter film due to its violent theme—and so “Above the Clouds” was written for her—even after she had passed away.
A moving film that deals with how a grandfather and his apo deal with grief and loss after Ondoy, the two leads, Pepe Smith and Ruru Madrid are believable as two related strangers trying to figure out how to make room for the other—if they should even make room at all. As the grandfather struggling with this dilemma, Smith is a tragicomic but very relatable person trying to get across to a grandchild who is physically mere inches away from him, but whose heart and mind exist in a psychological divide as vast as an ocean of clouds.
Having survived Ondoy himself, Ruru Madrid relives in his portrayal of Andres/Andy some of the trauma, the survivor’s guilt, the haunted look of the one left behind. His anger, grief and isolation were tools deftly handled by the director, and despite his youth, managed to carry his part of the film with grace and sensitivity. Beautifully shot in various locations in the Philippines, primarily in Mt. Pulag, Sagada, Mountain Province, with some scenes in Montalban, the fictional landscape in “Above the Clouds” lends itself to the narrative, like a third character.
The film partly owes its professional post-production work to a French grant that allowed the team to do the color grading in Paris, another aspect of the storytelling/filmmaking process that made it more engaging for audiences. In their thrust to reach as many audiences as possible, producer Bianca Balbuena is encouraging interested schools or groups to contact via their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AboveTheCloudsMovie) for screenings.
