Hitting the bull’s eye of reality

Birdshot is a coming of age film which tells the story of Maya, who innocently kills a Philippine Eagle, protected by the government. Circulating on the life of Maya, the story has depicted a lot of elements of society that are requisite knowledge that we can obtain. Besides its thriller and mysterious plot, it set forth that police brutality exists, and injustices are chronic. It also presents how people’s state in life directly affects how people of power treat them.

Maya, a girl living with her father who is a rural caretaker, in an area far from the city faces the dilemma when she not knowingly shoots a prestigious bird, under the care of the government. As shown in the movie, Maya is out of school and is being taught by her father how to fire a gun in order to catch prey or birds for them to eat or maybe to protect herself, too. As she is out of school, she lacks education about Philippines heritages or national animals. She only knew that she needed to prove that she learned what her father taught her, resulting in unknowingly killing a national bird. This particular incident changed the life of Maya, and became a distraction to the real case of the farmer’s disappearance. Her life changed drastically to the point of losing her father and killing a policeman. At the end, when she came back to the place where she killed the bird, she found a bunch of dead bodies in a pit, who are the farmers who went missing in the beginning of the film. The diversion of the case of the farmers to the killing of the haribon, is a clear depiction of how people think lowly of the lives of the marginalized people. In addition, it caused the characters to reach their ends and change into someone they never knew existed within them before.

With the opening shot of dark paths, we can already foresee the build up of the mysterious genre of the film. It is followed by Maya being taught by her father how to fire a gun, leaving the audiences in a state of confusion as to why the first bus scene is relevant to the whole film. It was later on revealed the case of the farmer’s disappearance that night, yet they gave more emphasis to the killing of the Philippine eagle. This can be an indication of how poorly or lowly people of power treat those who are in the marginalized sector. The character regression of Domingo, the police officer, appeared very obvious as the story progresses. During the first part of the film, Domingo is so drawn into solving the mysterious disappearance of the farmers in the bus to the peak of almost solving the case from the evidence he gathered himself. However, danger came running after him and his family when he started his investigation. Thereafter, he ignored all the evidence of the serious case of the farmer’s disappearance and channeled unpleasant behaviour that resorted to police brutality, which he first saw with his partner in his job, Mendoza.

The film had revealed how the police use their position to abuse people who they should be serving. It is also worth noting how the rank of people gives them the sense of power over the people who are inferior to them. For instance, how Mendoza raises his voice and commands Domingo what to do and what not to do in different cases. In addition, Mendoza is also being controlled under his superior police officer. It is a proof that ranking and power really gives people a sense of control over people inferior to them, which they use for their own good.

Police brutality is a note-worthy component in the film and in society that needs to be addressed seriously . It is justifiable to take into serious discussion how police brutality directly affects people’s mentality and security. With the long-standing police brutality happening in the Philippines, the roles and duties of the police officer to protect people and prevent crimes are being washed by themselves which results in people getting horrified upon seeing people wearing police uniforms.