A film shot in Mindanao has made it the 67th Venice Film Festival to be held from September 1 to 11, 2010.
Limbunan (international title: The Bridal Quarter), directed by Gutierrez Mangansakan II, has been invited as the closing film of the International Critics' Week of Venezia 67.
Limbunan was one of nine entries in the New Breed category of the 6th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival held last July 9 to 18. Hailed as the Best Film in this category was Halaw by Sheron Dayoc, another Mindanaon filmmaker.
"This is an ecstatic moment. This proves that I did something good," Mangansakan said upon hearing the news.
In a phone interview by PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) earlier today, the filmmaker admitted that he felt sad when Limbunan went home empty-handed during the awards night held last July 18 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
"Down na down kami after the awarding, then three hours later, we received the news that we have been invited to the Venice Film Fest. We felt vindicated," said Mangansakan, who is based in Davao but hails from a royal family in Maguindanao.
This is his first time to direct a full-length narrative film, although he has already helmed the short documentary film House Under the Crescent Moon. The latter won the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Gawad CCP para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video in 2001.
As indie films go, everything had to be completed with speed and at least cost. Actor Joem Bascon stayed in Mindanao for two days to shoot the film while Tetchie Agbayani stayed for three days. Limbunan was shot in Davao and North Cotabato over a total of seven short days.
FIRST PINOY FILM IN VENICE CRITICS' WEEK. Venice is considered the second most prestigious film festival in the world, and is counted among the "Big Three." The other two are the film festivals of Cannes and Berlin. No film from the Philippines has ever been featured in the lineup of Venice Critics' Week.
Representatives of the National Syndicate of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI) were responsible for choosing eight other films from first-time directors for this parallel section.
Limbunan follows the life of a bride-to-be, as she is kept from public view prior to her wedding, as tradition dictates. The film depicts the ritual among women in a Maguindanaon family, after 16-year-old Ayesah's betrothal to a man she barely knows. Complicating matters further is that Ayesah (played by Jea Lyka Cinco) has doubts about her arranged marriage because of her feelings for a military man (portrayed by Joem Bascon).
"ENIGMATIC FILM." The Venice Film Festival describes Limbunan thus: "A ritual and enigmatic film, inhabited by female figures of sublime beauty and subtle desperation, who live imprisoned within an ancestral tradition apparently with no way out...The young Mangansakan expresses the eternal drama of women slavery with a gentle and contemplative style, composing a poem that seems to be the silent scream of a whole nation."
In 2009, another Cinemalaya entry was invited to Venezia 66. Pepe Diokno's Engkwentro won the Best Film in the Orizzonti Section and the Luigi de Laurentiis Award for debut films.
Limbunan will similarly be competing for the Luigi de Laurentiis Award, which is given to the best debut film screened in all sections of the Venice Film Festival. It comes with a cash prize of US$100,000 (Php 4.58 million).