Mara Isabella Lopez recently revealed that her mother,
former actress-beauty queen Maria Isabel Lopez, had no plans of joining the
delegation of Kinatay in the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.
During the birthday press conference organized by Star Magic last May 29, Mara
said that her mother was hesitant to go to France because they were already in
the United States when they received the invitation. The young actress was able
to convince her mother to go, which was fortunate since Kinatay earned
the Best Director award for Direk Brillante, making him the first Filipino to
receive this honor.
Kinatay (The Execution of P) has been invited to the upcoming Locarno International Film Festival, which will be held in Switzerland this August. Direk Brillante will also serve as a jury member in the said film fest.
Now part of Star Magic Batch 13, Mara is a fourth year Communication Arts
student in De La Salle University. She turned 18 years old last May 20. Viewers
will be able to see her soon on the indie film Junkshop where she
co-stars with Ronnie Lazaro.
CANNES EXPERIENCE. Even though Mara only spent two days in France, she
was grateful to have been given the opportunity to join the delegation of Kinatay.
This Brillante Mendoza film starred Mara's mother, former beauty queen Maria
Isabel Lopez, as the rape-murder victim who is killed in the film.
"Cannes was great, Cannes was different," describes Mara. "Tapos, mabilis lang
po ako. Pero si Penelope Cruz nandun. Hindi namin
nakita, nakita lang namin sa news na andun pala si Penelope
[who had a Cannes entry titled Broken Embraces]. Kasi iyong movie
niya, kasama ng movie ni Mommy. I had to leave ‘cause I had to fly to New York
to meet my producer [for Santa Mesa]."
Mara said that
she was unable to watch the world premiere of Kinatay but she did
describe how the makeup department were able to "butcher" her mother.
"Pumunta sila [those who made the prosthetics] sa bahay namin. Kinuha nila
‘yong sukat ng buong katawan. Una may plastic na lalagay diyan. Mainit, umiinit
daw, e, sabi ni Mommy. Umiinit, tapos titigas. Pati iyung boobs kinuha, pati
iyung legs. Buong katawan talaga, pati mukha."
SANTA MESA.
In this indie film directed by Ron Morales, Mara plays a
neighborhood teenage girl named Sel. Santa Mesa is about a young boy
named Hector (played by Jacob Shalov) who joins a street gang in the Sta. Mesa
area.
Santa Mesa won the Best Dramatic Narrative Feature award during the San
Diego Asian-American Film Festival and it was also given the Special Jury Award
in the San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival in 2008. The film was shown
in various international film festivals such as in New York, Los Angeles,
Hawaii, Toronto, Chicago, Singapore and more.
"We did the film four years ago pero lumabas lang siya last year. It was here
in Cinemanila [the 10th edition of Cinemanila International Film Festival held
in 2008]," says Mara about her film, which was shot mostly in the Sta. Mesa area.
"Santa Mesa is about a young boy named Hector. Namatay iyong family sa
States so he had to go to the Philippines sa lola niya na nakatira sa
squatter's area ng Sta. Mesa. Ako naman, isa akong sampaguita vendor. Nain-love
siya sa 'kin. Iyon ‘yong first on-screen kiss ko. He was younger than me and
he's from New Jersey.
Original DVD copies of Santa Mesa are now available in its official
website.