In 2000, the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (DECS), under Secretary Andrew Gonzalez, called it an innovative film and endorsed it to schools, teachers, and students for the "invaluable lessons that can be learned from the story.

"[2] Two filmmakers (Ricky Davao and Cris Villanueva) are absorbed with the idea of creating a film about the life of presumptive Philippine national hero José Rizal.

The interviews are done with his mother Doña Teodora, his siblings Trining, Narcisa, and Paciano, his love interest and alleged wife Josephine Bracken, and the Jesuit priest who supposedly witnessed Rizal's retraction, Padre Balaguer.

Over the course of the investigation, the filmmakers are unable to reconcile conflicting testimonies, their own personal biases, and the doubts and uncertainties that plague accounts of Rizal's life, writings, and beliefs.

In 1996, Mike de Leon and frequent collaborator Clodualdo del Mundo Jr. were in talks with GMA Pictures, then called Cinemax, to work on a film on the life of José Rizal, to be played by Aga Muhlach.

[8][10] In a mixed review, however, Boo Chanco of The Philippine Star found that although it was an "interesting, smart alecky film," it failed to offer an idea of what a national hero should be.