The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Filipino theater, TV and movie actor Bong Cabrera is too excited for being part of internationally renowned filmmaker Lav Diaz’s “Magellan” to premiere in the prestigious 2025 Cannes International Film Festival this month.
“Excited for my first Lav Diaz film. I was so nervous on my first day of filming for ‘Magalhāes’ (the Portuguese lexicon for Magellan),” admitted Bong.
According to Cabrera, he had too much qualms in his chest and brains during the go-see with Lav during the final selection for the cast of the movie.
“…Sobrang dami kong (I have a lot of) questions kay (for) Hazel Orencio—one Sine Olivia staff—kung how the process of filming with Lav will go. Grabe din ang takot ko (I had so much fears) before ko siya ma-meet (I met him). Yung takot na (Fears like) what if pag nakita niya ako (he sees me) he will reject me upfront (and would be ask to go home). It happened to me several times in several projects na kasi, yung pinapunta ako ng (situations like I was asked to attend the go-see by the) production and they let me go home because most of them realize na ‘Ay Bong is short pala!’ ‘Ay sino siya (that ‘Oh, he’s short, after all’ ‘Oh, who’s he?’.”
Cabrera passed the so-called audition and landed a role in the project.
Bong plays Rajah Colambu, the chieftain of Limasawa Island who guided Ferdinand Magellan when he arrived in Cebu.
What also excited the young actor is his acting with the Hollywood actor from Mexico, Gael Garcia Bernal.
He will also pit talents with Colombian actress Angela Ramos as Beatriz, Argentinian actor and film critic Roger Alan Koza as Alfonso de Albuquerque, Gael’s half-brother Dario Yazbek Bernal as Duarte Barbosa and Portuguese actor Rafael Morais as Joao Carvalho.
Other stars in “Magellan” from the Philippine side are Ronnie Lazaro as Rajah Humabon, Hazel Orencio as Juana and Amado Arjay Babon as Enrique.
“Magellan” is a multiple production venture of Rosa Filmes, a Portuguese studio; Andergraun Films, a Spanish company; Black Cap Pictures, a Philippine outfit and Volos Films, a production house in Taiwan.
The 78th edition of Cannes will run from May 13 to 24, 2025 at the French Riviera. (Boy Villasanta)