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| The cast and crew of Mindanao led by award-winning director Brillante Mendoza and one of the best actresses of her generation Judy Ann Santos. |
Whenever
people talk about director Brillante Mendoza, his work would often be described
as thought-provoking, moving, socially relevant and award-winning.
Who can
forget Mendoza’s first film Masahista in 2005 where a newcomer Coco Martin portrays
the role of young man offering massage service to gay men and touches the harsh
realities of life? Four years later,
Coco was again tapped by Mendoza for the movie Kinatay where the later won the
best director plum at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, the first
Filipino to achieve such milestone.
Mendoza has
also worked with the Superstar of Philippine Cinema Nora Aunor in the movie Thy
Womb (2012), his first movie set in Mindanao, and Cannes Best Actress Jacklyn
Jose for the 2016 drama Ma’ Rosa.
In this year’s
Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), Mendoza is bringing his winning ways with
the much-acclaimed movie Mindanao to compete in the box-office with other entries:
The Mall, The Merrier (Vice Ganda/ Anne
Curtis); Mission Unstapabol: The Don Identity (Vic Sotto/ Maine Mendoza); Sunod
(Carmina Villarroel/ Mylene Dizon); 3POL Trobol: Huli Ka Balbon! (Coco Martin/
Ai-Ai Delas Alas/ Jennylyn Mercado); Miracle in Cell No. 7 (Aga Muhlach/ Xia Vigor);
Write About Love (Roco Nacino/ Miles Ocampo); and Culion (Iza Calzado/ Jasmine
Curtis-Smith / Meryll Soriano).
Mindanao
does not lack star power with Judy Ann Santos leading the cast of this movie
graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board. Juday won the Best Actress award for
this film at the 41st Cairo International Film Festival while the full-length feature
was also recognized as Best in Artistic Contribution.
If you need
a good cry this holiday season, Mindanao is a certified tearjerker. Make sure
that along with your popcorn, you have a lot of tissues on hand because things
can be messy when you started to sob with Juday. Another good news is that you
can now tag along your kids watching a Brillante Mendoza film because the multi
award-winning director used animation in his feature for the first time to
incorporate the epic tale of Rajah and Sulayman in this action drama film about
Saima (Judy Ann) who spent the final days of her daughter Aisa (Yuna Tangog)who
was battling cancer at the House of Hope in Davao City while his husband Malang
(Allen Dizon) dodges bullets as a medic in the military operation in
Maguindanao.
My personal
takeaways after watching Mindanao is that, regardless of religion, beliefs and
social status, we are all equal when we see death waving at us. Whether its
cancer or a loaded gun that is slowly killing you, it doesn’t even matter
because the bottom line is if you don’t survive, you’re dead. Plus, it was
quite an experience even just through this film to witness how our Muslim brothers
and sisters pay their last respect to their loved ones who passed away.
But the
movie is not really that gloomy because Mendoza was able to weave scenes of
hopes and colourful moments to balance the heavy premise of the story. Watch
out for the heart-warming grocery store scene and you might whisper, “Faith in
humanity restored.”
Indeed, the
brilliance of Mendoza is flying and spewing fire like Ginto and Pula from the
popular folktale from the South, in this yet another eye-opener and one of the
front-runners for the Best Picture at the MMFF award ceremonies.
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