The film is about deconstructing Rizal. It is a call for an investigative and critical look into pronouncements of powerful institutions such as the church, government and media. It is likewise a statement about filmmaking that it helps construct reality but is not reality by itself. Mike de Leon's decision to make the film in black and white, a satire, a form a la laugh-in, contributes to the distancing of his work from all those other films that entice the audience to believe that film is life.
Truth lies beyond the film text and individuals create their own truths.
De Leon has brilliantly structured his film like snippets instead of the usual linear narrative structure that we see in mainstream cinema. Many are bothered by the film's concern about Rizal's retraction, which has become its central issue. This should not bother us the church, the government and the censor at the time of Rizal were one and the same. They merely represented the powerful. Therefore, today, we are just asked to look for where the power is.