The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Boy Villasanta
Philippine cinema is again at the center of two prestigious world cinema events. Epicmedia’s “Makikiraan Po (Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors)” will be screened at the La Biennale di Venezia of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival and Quantum Films’ “Silenced Night” will compete at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival. Both films will hit foreign screens in September.
According to Hazel Orencio, one of the top brasses of Sine Olivia, internationally acclaimed director Lav Diaz’s “Makikiraan Po…,” will be part of the out of competition section of TIFF. “Back in La Biennale di Venezia after two years! But also, it’s been ten years since the Golden Lion win of ‘Ang Babaeng Humayo’! What a way to celebrate the tenth year!” exclaimed Hazel on her social media spaces.
Diaz’s historical epic portrays Las Islas Filipinas in 1617 when the Spanish friar Padre Enciso, the encomendero of one of the islands, rules with unrelenting toughness and insatiable libido.
Enciso salves his cruelty effectively by invoking the soul’s emancipation through Jesus’ suffering; and the hospitable and embracing indigenous Malay is doomed.
After the conversion of the majority of the island’s population to Christianity, the friar builds a church which takes more than ten years in the making that caused suffering and deaths in its wake.
Building a church, though, isn’t easy as it is met by adversaries like thieves and bandits, especially the most dreadful, brutal marauder Baribari.
The friar’s other nemesis is the babaylan Babayeng Intimatandog who defies him as she continues to propagate the Malay animist traditions.
The Philippines was forcefully reconstructed by imperial Spain via copious sex (we now call rape), gluttonous appetite (we now call plunder) and the promise of salvation (we now call cataclysm).
“Makikiraan po…” stars Bart Guingona, Ronnie Lazaro, Isabel Sandoval, Christian Bables, Yul Servo, Bong Cabrera, Rafa Siguion-Reyna, Sri Arjhay Babon, among others.
“Silenced Night” on the other hand is produced by Atty. Joji Villanueva Alonso.
According to Joji, her new production is “the first Filipino film to be part of the 11-year-old Platform Programme—the only juried competition of the festival.”
“It will compete against 11 other films that spotlights exceptional directorial vision, innovation, and auteur voices for the prize of $20,000 CAD. And for a non-English language film, it is also an Oscar qualifying award for direct consideration for Best International Feature Film,” added Alonso.
“Silenced Night” which is about a young man who witnessed the Extra Judicial Killing (EJK) of a young boy during the war of drugs era of the past administration is written by Troy Espiritu, directed by Lawrence Fajardo and stars Lotlot de Leon, Ina Feleo, Tanya Gomez, Joel Saracho and Nico Antonio, among others.