José Rizal (Martinez) was exiled in Dapitan in 1892, and he began adapting to his new home. He helped the local residents by offering free education to all children, befriending his student Jose Asiniero (Hernando), and rendering his services as a doctor, including treating his mother, Doña Teodora Alonzo (Carpio), who visited him with his sisters Maria (Pangilinan) and
Narcisa (Dumpit).
He met his fiancée Josephine Bracken (Page) who brought her blinded stepfather George Taufer (Holmes) but later on she left him for her beloved Rizal. They decide to marry, but are refused a Church wedding on political grounds. The couple settles for a common-law marriage despite initial opposition from Rizal's family, and have a stillborn son Rizal names Francisco. The film closes with Rizal leaving Dapitan as the locals mourn him. An epilogue explains Rizal's intent to work in Cuba and subsequent arrest, his execution and its birthing the Philippine Revolution.
Antonio Samson, then the senior vice president of PLDT, came up with the idea of making a film about the time José Rizal was exiled in Dapitan, and brought it to director Tikoy Aguiluz.[3]
The film was shot entirely in the City of Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norteon16 mm film.[3] Up to June 1997, the film was simply titled Dapitan.[3] Aguiluz originally meant for the film to have a shorter length for release on television, but he eventually decided against it, convincing the producers to let him extend it to feature-length.[3]
Rizal sa Dapitan was an entry of the Manila Film Festival in mid-1997, where it won 12 awards, including the Rajah Sulayman Award for Best Picture.[4] However, it was not commercially successful during its theatrical run.[5]GMA Network, which was producing a different film about Rizal through its own film studio, acquired the television broadcast rights to Rizal sa Dapitan.[5]
The film's international version held its premiere on September 30, 1997, at the Film Center of the University of the Philippines Diliman, with the event billed with the subtitle "Film Gift to the Nation".[4]
It was screened at the Brussels International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the best actor award for Albert Martinez.[6]
