PEP.ph: The Number One Site for Philippine Showbiz | Indie | Laurice Guillen leads cast of "Karera"

Multi-awarded director and actress Laurice Guillen stars as the strong-willed yet troubled matriarch in Adolfo Alix, Jr.'s new independent film titled Karera. It shows a day-in-the life of a Filipino family struggling to make ends meet unfolding on the last day of the karera (horse racing) at Sta. Ana Race Track before it moves to Carmona, Cavite.

This marks Guillen's return to the big screen in nearly five years. She was last seen in Marilou Diaz-Abaya's 2003 drama Noon at Ngayon. On television, she has been part of the ABS-CBN teleserye Iisa Pa Lamang. However, she did lend her voice to several characters in the Metro Manila Film Fest entry Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia.

Joining Guillen in the cast are Rosanna Roces, Jay Manalo and Joem Bascon who plays her children.

Written by Jerome David Zamora, Karera explores the life of the Domingo family, which seems to be a microcosm of the Filipino society racing against time and opportunity as they gamble with their personal choices in a series of complicated moral, spiritual, political and social issues.

The mother, LV (Guillen), runs a bookies (an illegal horse race betting outlet) in their house. Today, the money she is supposed-to-remit is missing. She struggles to look for the missing money and trace who might get hold of it. Ace (Manalo), LV's eldest, who works as a sota (horse caretaker) is torn between pursuing an illegal arrangement with one of the other trainors to injure the horse he takes care of in exchange for a hefty sum of money that he can use for his placement fee. Daisy (Roces), the matriarch's daughter is running away from policemen after an arrangement that she needs to pinpoint all the other illegal karera outlets to spare her family. Bingo (Bascon), their youngest, is impatiently waiting for his girlfriend to have sex with him after a bet with his friends.

What happens is a raw and gritty drama of human survival: Will they win or will they lose?

Karera also stars Allan Paule, Menggie Cobarrubias, Soliman Cruz, Kristofer King, Marife Necesito, Arnold Reyes, Edgar Allan Guzman, Mercedes Cabral, Cherry Madrigal, Kenneth Ocampo, Jess Evardone and Moises Magisa.

Produced by Jay Manalo and Bicycle Pictures, Karera will open soon in selected theaters nationwide during the first quarter of 2009.

Direk Adolf tells PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) that he first met Jay when he was the art director of Mano Po 1. They met again when Adolf worked as a writer of Kung Mawawala Ka, where Jay was one of the characters. The two talked about the possibility of doing a project together when they worked on the film Manila, which is directed by Adolf.

Karera has scenes shot at the Sta. Ana Race Track, Quiapo, Pandacan and Paranaque.

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