‘GomBurZa’ Netflix Movie Review - The Story of the Three Executed Priests

Based on the true events, GomBurZa is a historical movie which is originally released in the year 2023. It is originally a Filipino movie that focuses on three priests and their life history when they fought against Spanish authorities. I have watched many popular Filipino movies but for the first time, I watched a Filipino movie for which I was very excited to watch.

As the storyline is inspired by true events, I had high expectations from GomBurZa. If you are someone who loves to explore historical events and is always into movies based on historical facts then you should watch this movie.

The movie starts with showing a peasant boy who is called Apolinario Dela Cruz claims that he saw Saint Joseph in his dreams and tries to enter a priory to turn himself into a Friar. But he was not allowed to enter as he was an Indios. He then creates his own identity to stop the Friars who are actually Spaniards.

He becomes the very first Indio to take this step but unfortunately, he is killed. After this, the Spaniards start to fear that in the future they will again encounter someone like Apolinario Dela Cruz. So, the Spaniards start to control the people and create more fear in them.

At first, I found the movie kind of slow but then slowly it started to get my interest. Now the story moved on to Jose Burgos and his mentor trying to get the power back from the Spaniards. But things took an unexpected turn when Jose's mentor died due to the earthquake. Now, Jose Burgos tried to make a team and contacted many higher-ups to have the same equality as the Spaniards.

So, the story mainly focuses on Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora. These three tried to plan a mutiny with the soldiers/fighters of the Filipinos to get back their rights. But unfortunately, they got caught and the three priests also got caught for being a part of the attack.

If you are someone who loves watching historical movies or series to learn the true events that happened during the historical period then this one should be on your list. You will feel so frustrated and unfair because the three priests get executed by the government for being accused. Even though people know the truth they still couldn't fight for their fighters. The sacrifices and contributions of these three made many people fight for their rights and get back their Philippines from the Spaniards.

I cried really bad and felt frustrated at the same time because knowing that it is based on true events, and still three of them died while fighting for their nation, I wished really badly for the writer to make a twist at the end. But, sadly, the whole movie is based on real events and it is not fictional.

Overall, I really enjoyed the content as it not only increased my knowledge of the historic events of Fillipinnes but as a movie it was not at all boring. The movie was on point and its cinematography was also very vintage and aesthetically pleasing.

Final Score- [8.5/10]
Reviewed by - Ayasa Mallick
Publisher at Midgard Times