MOST Filipinos encounter Sisa in high school through Jose Rizal’s book, Noli Me Tangere. Yet over time, her name has grown into the personification of the silence, suffering, and trauma many women are forced to endure. This Women’s Month, Director Jun Lana reimagines the tragic folktale of Sisa for a modern audience. 

SISA, starring Hilda Koronel and written and directed by Jun Lana, first premiered at the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in Estonia in November 2025. Following its Tallinn debut, the film won Best Screenplay at the Fantasporto International Film Festival in Portugal in February 2026. After its international run, SISA had its Philippine homecoming on March 4, opening with special ticket prices: P275 at SM Cinemas within Metro Manila and P230 outside the metro, while Robinsons Movieworld offered a 45-percent discount, making tickets P154.

Do We See SISA?

Set in the year 1902, the film follows a nameless woman who emerges from the treeline with terrifying confidence, heading straight toward a guard tower. She does not speak, and she seems completely unaware of her surroundings. It is only after a confrontation with American soldiers that she earns the name Sisa — a name lifted from a tragic archetype, chosen because this silent, traumatized woman personifies the “madwoman” who has lingered in the Filipino psyche for more than a hundred years.

The story takes place at a concentration camp where American soldiers have enslaved a community of women and killed most of their families. Filipinos recognized the colonizers’ overwhelming power, understood the price of resisting, and felt the safety in compliance. While resilience is often celebrated as a Filipino trait, the film also reveals the toll of merely enduring and accepting oppression. 

By pretending to be mad, Sisa weaponized her supposed madness, keeping everyone unaware of her true purpose as a spy. In doing so, she not only survives but also subverts the expectations imposed upon her, showing that women’s strength and intelligence often go unseen yet can shape history in profound ways. Wars and revolutions celebrate men—but what of the women who fought in silence, their courage unnoticed? 

No One Listens to a Woman

The hard truth is that no one listens to a woman. In family conversations, her voice is often barely heard. In positions of power—especially in government—women are still frequently sidelined. 

They are not tokens or statistics; they are individuals with their own voice and inherent value.

Historically, women have been expected to stay silent, stay in the kitchen, and do the laundry. Patriarchy is so deeply ingrained in society that even today, it persists—sometimes even within women themselves. The expectation is subtle but pervasive: if a woman is disrespected or harassed, she is discouraged from resisting. Not because anyone explicitly told her not to, but because it is rare to see a woman fight back, and the culture around her has long been shaped to normalize submission.

From childhood, girls are trained to prepare for a life centered on men—to be the perfect wife and a devoted mother. It is as if a woman’s entire life is expected to orbit around them. Household chores are assigned automatically, and her worth is often measured by how useful she is and how well she serves the men around her.

Resilient, Unseen, Unbroken

Releasing SISA during Women’s Month is both timely and symbolic. Why do we even “celebrate” women? In truth, such recognition is more of a correction—women have long been dismissed as weak or hysterical. The bravery shown by Sisa is not inherently limited to women, yet they face challenges shaped by the specific social constraints of their time. 

Recently, Quezon City 4th District Representative Bong Suntay made snarky remarks about Anne Curtis, sparking social media posts that sided with him, questioning what she “expected” based on how she presents herself. This is not an isolated incident—it reflects the daily struggles women endure: having to cover up to protect themselves and remain constantly hyperaware because men cannot always contain their impulses. 

But why is it always the woman who has to adjust and forgive?

Who is Sisa? She is every woman—a mother, a sister, a daughter—someone who endures despite the violence, disappointments, and compromises that the world imposes on her. The country’s true survivors have always been its women. They endure, they adapt, and they carry memory. SISA reminds us that Sisa’s tragedy was never just one woman’s madness. It is a condition the nation continues to produce—and one its women continue to survive.

One day, when a little girl resists the very systems and cultural norms ingrained in our country, no one will be shocked and ask, “Gawain ba ng matinong babae ‘yan?” This is the vision we must strive for—a world where young women no longer fear standing up and resisting