The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Alvin I. Dacanay
Taklub (Trap), the latest film of celebrated actress Nora Aunor that is helmed by her equally acclaimed Thy Womb director Brillante Ma. Mendoza, will have its world premiere at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival next month, it was announced late last week.
In an official media release updating the official selection of films to be screened at the prestigious French film festival, festival organizers added Taklub—which follows a group of people in Leyte province who survived the wrath of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international codename: Haiyan)—to the festival’s Un Certain Regard section.
Taklub is joined in that section by Alias Maria, by Colombian director José Luis Rugeles Gracia; AN, by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase, who won the festival’s Camera d’Or—given to first-time directors—for her film Suzaku in 1997; Cemetery of Splendor, by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who garnered the Palme d’Or—the festival’s top prize—for his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives in 2010; and Lamb, by debuting Ethiopian filmmaker Yared Zeleke and the first film from the East African nation to be screened at Cannes.
These films will compete with 15 other movies in the section for the Prix Un Certain Regard and other awards, which will be given by that’s section jury, led by Blue Velvet actress and former Lancôme model Isabella Rossellini.
The Certain Regard, which will run alongside the festival’s Main Competition section, showcases films of varying points of view and styles that seek international recognition, as well as a wider audience.
Taklub is Aunor’s second film to be screened at Cannes, after Lino Brocka’s Bona, which was shown as part of the Directors’ Fortnight section in 1981. The film is Mendoza’s fourth to be shown at the festival, after Foster Child (Directors’ Fortnight, 2007); Serbis (Service) (Main Competition, 2008); and Kinatay (Butchered) (Main Competition, 2009), which earned him the Best Director prize at the festival, the first Filipino to do so.
Aunor and Mendoza’s first film together, the 2012 drama Thy Womb, competed for the Golden Lion award at the 69th Venice International Film Festival. It was one of the big winners at that year’s Metro Manila Film Festival, garnering Best Director and Best Actress honors; and won Aunor Best Actress prizes at the 6th Asia Pacific Screen Awards and 7th Asian Film Awards.
The announcement that Taklub was included in Un Certain Regard came after Aunor received the lifetime achievement award at the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) International Film Festival and Awards earlier this month.