Doña Pina (Mona Lisa), a rich hacienda owner, is a despotic mother who favors her younger son Ellis (Christopher de Leon) over her other son Lorenzo (Phillip Salvador), thus promoting sibling rivalry between the two brothers. While Ellis studies in Manila, Lorenzo is only allowed to work at the farm... And Doña Pina cares much about Ellis’ bastard son had with their maid, while she is stern with Lorenzo’s children. Ellis’ desire is to inherit the farm and the wealth, and he comes home from Manila with his fiancée, sexy Cita (Carmi Martin). Asked by the mother to leave way to Ellis, resentful Lorenzo leaves the farm with his family and stays with friends. But Lorenzo’s indignant wife, Becky (Baby Delgado), confronts her mother in law about the unfairness towards Lorenzo, and the violent ensuing struggle leads to her miscarriage and death... Upon that, Cita is caught by Lorenzo’s drinking gang friends, and dies after being raped. Urged by friends, the conflict between the two enemy brothers runs into a violent armed conflict, with very little hope to be solved peacefully...
Freely inspired by the biblical story about enemy brothers Cain and Abel, Lino Brocka’s film is a strong social and moral melodrama set in Marcos era’s Philippines, and probably underrated abroad, because it was not shown in festivals, unlike some other famous films. Along stars Christopher de Leon and Phillip Salvador is Mona Lisa, as the mother, a legendary actress who started in the 1930s as an actress and a singer. The film was censored at the time of release, mostly the scene of Cita’s rape.
The source used for the restoration was the extant 35mm print from the ABS-CBN Film Archives (minus a few minutes of Cita’s rape and death, cut in the negative for censorship reasons). Cain and Abel is the first restoration project of ABS-CBN partnered with CDL to be scanned in 4K and restored in 2K.
Max Tessier