Last Friday night (Manila Time), a Filipino soap opera called “May Bukas Pa” here in the Philippines ended its final run. The soap has been very popular because of its dominant religious and spiritual theme which caught the hearts of many Filipinos. The success of the soap owes to its story line and its brave dwelling on the reality of human lives revolving around the Divine life of an orphaned child named Santino. But few People know the real score behind the soap opera. Though it is the first ever soap opera to tackle a dominant theme about God on Philippine TV, it is nevertheless a remake and adaptation of the original Spanish movie called “Marcelino Pan Y Vino” filmed in 1955 and was regarded as one of the most successful Spanish movie which made it to the international scene. There are several differences however between the movie and the series. The protagonist in the series is now named Santino, played by young actor Zaijian Jaranilla. Instead of having the statue of Christ in the attic, it is located within the grounds outside the monastery. Big stars of the Philippines’ largest network, ABS-CBN, who produced this series, have cameo roles within the storyline. Even before ABS-CBN made a revival about the child saint, RPN 9 already made a Lenten drama about it in the early 80′s starring Romnick Sarmenta. Even before, Hollywood bought the rights of the movie and dubbed it in English and was re-titled “the Miracle of Marcelino”. After the success in the US, other countries followed suit and made their own version of it.

Marcelino Pan Y Vino is originally filmed in Spanish and was written by José María Sánchez Silva, who based it on his novel, and directed by Ladislao Vajda. Its stars were Rafael Rivelles, Juan Calvo (who also starred together as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the 1947 Spanish film version of Cervantes’s Don Quixote) and the young child star Pablito Calvo (no relation to Juan) as Marcelino. The background score and the film’s theme song are by Pablo Sorozábal. The story, revised and modernized in both the book and film, dates back to a medieval legend, one of many gathered together in a volume by Alfonso el Sabio.

The story revolves around Marcelino, an orphan abandoned as a baby on the steps of a monastery in eighteenth-century Spain. The monks raise the child, and Marcelino grows into a rowdy young boy. He has been warned by the monks not to visit the monastery attic, where a supposed bogeyman lives, but he ventures upstairs anyway, sees the bogeyman and tears off back down the stairs.

At a festival, Marcelino causes havoc when he accidentally lets some animals loose, and the new local mayor, whom the monks would not let adopt the child because of his coarse behavior, uses the incident as an excuse to try to shut down the monastery.
Given the silent treatment by the monks, Marcelino gathers up the courage to once again enter the attic, where he sees not a bogeyman, but a beautiful statue of Christ on the Cross. Remarking that the statue looks hungry, Marcelino steals some bread and wine and offers it to the statue, which comes to life, descends from the Cross, and eats and drinks what the boy has brought him. The statue becomes Marcelino’s best friend and confidant, and begins to give him religious instruction. For his part, Marcelino realizes that the statue is Christ.

The monks know something is strange when they notice bread and wine disappearing, and arrange to spy on Marcelino. One day, the statue notices that Marcelino is pensive and brooding instead of happy, and tells him that he would like to reward his kindness. Marcelino answers: “I want only to see my mother, and to see Yours after that”. The statue cradles Marcelino in its arms, tells Marcelino to sleep – and Marcelino dies happy.
The monks witness the miracle through a crack in the attic door, and burst in just in time to see the dead Marcelino bathed in a heavenly glow. The statue returns to its place on the Cross, and Marcelino is buried underneath the chapel and venerated by all who visit the now flourishing monastery-turned-shrine.

The main story is told in flashback by a monk (played by Fernando Rey), who, visiting a dying girl, tells her the story of Marcelino for inspiration. The film ends with the monk entering the now completely remodeled chapel in the monastery during Mass, and saying to the crucifix once kept in the attic: “We have been speaking about you, O Lord”, and then, to Marcelino’s grave, which is situated nearby, “And about you, too, Marcelino”.
The film remains one of the most famous and successful Spanish films ever made, and one of the first Spanish films to become successful in the U.S. as well.

BTW in case you are wondering, there is no San Marcelino Pan Y Vino in the Canon of Saints. The Story is fiction and was written as a novel in Spanish.

To WATCH THE FULL MOVIE OF MARCELINO PAN Y VINO, CLICK HERE

This is the ending of May Bukas Pa… aired for the last time in ABS-CBN on February 5, 2010..