Abducted indie filmmaker sisters were making movie on Sulu coffee farmers, not on sultanate

From InterAksyon (Jun 28): Abducted indie filmmaker sisters were making movie on Sulu coffee farmers, not on sultanate



The Bansil sister, Linda and Nadjoua (photo by Nino Tan, courtesy of Mohammed Bansil)

(NOTE: The author is a journalist and uncle of Nadjoua and Linda Bansil, the sisters and independent filmmakers abducted last week in Sulu.)

The Bansil sisters Nadjoua, 39, and Linda, 36, independent filmmakers, traveled to Sulu province on June 19 with the sole purpose of working on a film documentary on the life and struggle of its poor coffee farmers.

They did not go there to do a documentary on the so-called Sulu Sultanate Darul Islam, contrary to some news reports. They also never planned to interview members of the Abu Sayyaf.

Mohammed "Med" Bansil, a younger brother of the sisters, clarified this yesterday. He said his sisters were assured of their safety by some Tausug personalities.

Among these personalities were Yazir Rajim of the SSDI; Nash Abduhadi, coordinator of Kusug Bata Sug; Fazlur-Rahman Alfad Abdulla, executive director for Patikul, Sulu, of the Sulu Area Coordinating Center; and Dr. Sahiron Amirul, provincial cooperative officer, and advocate for coffee farming in the province, he said.

"Without the assurances of their Tausug friends, we would never have allowed Nadj and Lin to go to Sulu, knowing from news reports and some friends about the risks," Mohammed Bansil stressed.

"We have many Tausug friends and we trust them. I speak Tausug fluently," Mohammed Bansil said.

"We took their assurances as guarantee that nothing untoward would happen to Nadj and Lin; that they would protect my sisters from any harm," he said.

He added that Nadj and Lin graduated with Mass Communications degrees from the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

The Bansil siblings -- Nadjoua (born April 24, 1974), Linda (born Nov. 3, 1976), Mohammed, nearly 35 (born July 27, 1977) and Zackaria, 34 (born Sept. 10, 1978) -- are children of the late Pagadian City Shari'ah Circuit judge Abdulbasit Bansil of Datu Piang, Maguindanao and Fatiha Elouali Bansil, of Oran, Algeria.

The Bansil brothers have also posted an appeal for their sisters' release on YouTube.



Nadjoua was only eight years old when their father and the entire family flew to the Philippines in 1982, after a teaching stint in Algeria.

Thus, it is in the Philippines where the four children grew up and still live. Their father died of illness in June 1991.

Their father studied on a scholarship, like many Muslim Filipino students, at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, graduating in Shari'ah Law studies.

Al-Azhar University then sent him on scholarship at the Stuttgart University in Germany.

Some of Abdulbasit Bansil's contemporaries at Al-Azhar University included Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) founder Dr. Salamat Hashim (of Maguindanao) and Ustadhz Abdulbaqi Abubakar (of Sulu), a highly respected senior leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and grand mufti (top Islamic religious leader) of Region 9.

Relatedly, a concept paper written by Nadjoua described their planned documentary for Tausug coffee farmers.

"Kahawa Armalite" the working title of the films hopes to show the "journey of farmers and evolution of coffee in war-torn Sulu and how coffee farmers manage to adapt and survive up to recent times, left with no choice but to 'armalite'-pick their coffee beans in order to survive."

Kahawa is coffee in Arabic. "Armalite"-picking refers to the Sulu coffee farmers' rapid harvesting of their coffee beans, picking the ripe and even the unripe ones always fearful that gunbattles can erupt anytime and prevent them from harvesting their coffee in their farms.

Nadjoua lamented that Sulu's coffee, though "known to be one of the best in the world," still has not gained wider popularity and a bigger market.

"There has been an initiative to intensify or improve (coffee) farming in this part of Mindanao, however, sustaining a market is still a struggle due to the emerging and re-emerging conflicts," said Nadjoua.

She said the coffee industry in Sulu has two main brands, Royal Sulu Coffee and Cafe de Sug, which is supplied to one of the international coffee shop chains.

She said "Cafe de Sug made an advisory in their website that the coffee delivery was disrupted due to the Sabah standoff."

"It is evident that when conflicts arise in the area, the coffee delivery is halted, however in this documentary we will not delve in these coffee (shop) chains and products, but (we) will focus more on the ordinary lives of farmers who till the land and make all these possible," said Nadjoua.

More from Nadjoua's concept paper:

"This film will have a direct cinema approach. It envisions an eye-opening humanistic approach to mirror the protagonists' journey from day to day life in the coffee fields and in their household. I will delve into their history; family and explore the possibilities following them with the camera face to face. Getting closer everyday will bring us a better idea of who they are, their motives, fate and psyche on how to survive in (the) midst of conflict. As well as stand (out) as a reflection of today's society in the Philippines, its future and its place in the world; the film will then reflect a unique point of view on (the) Sulu farmers' lives and where it is heading.

"Capturing the charm of their life despite fear and hardship is something I like to achieve. These captured moments set in a very artistic and poetic way, thus creating a window to the lives of farmers in the heartland of war-torn Sulu. How farmers are attached to their coffee farm, their relationship to the coffee farm from morning afternoon till night. In this light, I want to feature their passion towards the field of coffee and to let the audience see and feel what Sulu farmers are thinking and that the development of the coffee industry here is due to lack of peace and stability in the area.

"What I'm filming is not the dark side but more on the truthful side; I want to bring honest stories to the fore and create awareness. I would like to tell the world the untold stories of Sulu, and humanize what has been demonized for decades.

"I love coffee, and that coffee is a universal commodity. I would like to share a story of Sulu farmers in a midst of conflict."

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/65141/abducted-indie-filmmaker-sisters-were-making-movie-on-sulu-coffee-farmers-not-on-sultanate