When Jaclyn Jose won Best Actress for Ma' Rosa in the recently concluded Cannes Festival, I knew this is a movie we Filipinos should not miss.
Before this film hit the cinemas on July 6, here's what the multi-awarded director Brillante Mendoza has to say.
Describe Ma’Rosa in
one sentence
MA‘ ROSA shows us a glimpse of
a Filipino family set on a typical district in Manila, giving us a slice of
life in a community.
What made you pursue
the story behind Ma’ Rosa?
The idea of this film came up four years ago
when I became indirectly involved with the said incident. It captured my
interest to tell this story because it shows a unique but also disturbing
characteristic of a common Filipino family. That when a family member is backed
against the wall for the wrong doings that he or she made, you will do
everything to keep them out of trouble even if it means violating basic
virtues. In a society where survival of
the fittest is a fact that we have to live with, family becomes amoral.
What were the
challenges in putting the story together for the screen?
The whole film was treated like a documentary
film with a strong feel of realism, using found objects and locations in
production design. But what seems to be a simple production endeavor is
actually a formidable challenge to any filmmaker because even though this was
filmed in a minimalist manner, the truth is we are still doing a feature film
with real actors trained in different disciplines of acting.
In able for us to capture the precision raw
emotions, I told them to throw away everything that they have learned in their
acting profession and just act plain and natural as their characters since they
should blend with non-actors on screen.
We heard that you shot
the sequences without any script? Why is this?
That’s correct. The actors were never given a
copy of the script and were only directed based on how I commute the script.
Dialogs were delivered very naturally as they depend on their personal
instincts throughout the film. In fact, sequences were filmed in the same order
as the story so that the actors can relate to the plight of their character as
the shooting progresses. The feeling of uncertainty must materialize on screen
as the editing subscribes to the main character’s point-of-view as we follow their account of what transpired that
evening.
After Ma’Rosa, what’s
next?
A lot of films are in the pipeline. Also a
bigger Sinag Maynila for 2017. There is of course the The Brillante Mendoza
Film Workshop which is part of my advocacy to “rethink and redefine cinema”. This is also my way of giving back and
training new generations of film makers and storytellers.
Mendoza is known
for his advocacies and groundbreaking films that tackle social issues. He is
committed in sharing his knowledge and experience in filmmaking with a new
generation through his works and workshops.
Ma' Rosa is Mendoza’s
4th film to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival in France. The first one was Serbis
in 2008, which was nominated for the coveted Palme d'Or (Golden Palm). In 2009,
Mendoza won Best Director at Cannes for his film Kinatay, and in 2015, his
movie Taklub was given the Ecumenical Jury-Prize Special Mention.
Ma’Rosa gave the
Philippines and Southeast Asia its first acting award when Jaclyn Jose won as
Best Actress in the 69th Cannes Film Festival. Among the nominees
were Charlize Theron, Marion Cotillard, Isabelle Huppert, and Kristen Stewart.
The Philippines
will get to see what the buzz is all about come July 6 as Ma’Rosa opens in
cinemas nationwide.
Ma’ Rosa SYNOPSIS
ROSA, owns a
small community convenience store connected to their home in the slums of
Metropolitan Manila. Together with her husband, NESTOR, they use their
convenient store as cover-up for selling illegal narcotic, Methamphetamines.
Their fate changes when their neighbor sets them up for a police raid leading
to the couple’s arrest; a ploy for extortion. Backed against the wall, Rosa seeks help
from her children, JACKSON, RAQUEL and KERWIN as they do the daunting task to
buy their parent’s freedom.
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