Directed by Mark Meily from a well-researched screenplay by Roy Iglesias, the film chronicles the events in what became known as “The Siege of Baler” during the Spanish Occupation when a 57-man Riffle Battalion of the Spanish military clashed with the Filipino forces. It’s against this backdrop that a beautiful love story was created between Feliza Reyes, a beautiful, young Filipina who falls in love with Celso Resurrecion, a half-Spanish/ half Filipino young man (an indio), much to the disapproval of the girl’s father who was a member of the guerilla movement. It’s basically a Romeo and Juliet kind of romance.

The girl is played by Anne Curtis and the indio, by Jericho Rosales.

Viva Films shelled out close to 60 million for “Baler” which is destined to be a landmark movie that will be talked about for years to come.

More than P20 million was spent to reconstruct the interiors of the church where the historic encounter between the Spanish Riffle Battalion (which was not aware that the war had long ended) and the Filipino forces happened. Even the exteriors of the church have to be renovated to make them look the way they did in 1898.