After Venice and Cannes, Brillante Mendoza joins the main competition of Berlin, the third A-list festival in the international triumvirate, with “Captive,” featuring French actress Isabelle Huppert and a Filipino cast led by Ronnie Lazaro, Raymond Bagatsing and Sid Lucero.
Mendoza previously competed in Cannes with “Serbis” and “Kinatay,” winning best director for the latter in 2009. That same banner year, he entered “Lola” in Venice as the “surprise film.”
In February 2012, Mendoza solidifies his unique position as one of the most internationally renowned directors in Philippine cinema history by competing in Berlin – the first Filipino filmmaker to do so since Ishmael Bernal (for “Himala”) 29 years ago. In 2008, Mendoza brought home the Caligari Prize from Berlin’s Forum section for “Tirador.”
Mendoza is well aware of the significance of his coming trip to the German capital. He told the Inquirer, “It proves that Philippine cinema is here to stay.” (There’s another Filipino film at the Berlinale this year, Rommel Tolentino’s “Nono” in the Generation Kplus section.)
“Festival-goers used to be just curious about Filipino films,” he explained. “With these developments, we are building an audience for our films. My wish is for Filipino movies to soon be first on festival-goers’ must-watchlist – in the same way that they prioritize Iranian or Korean films.”
However, Mendoza was quick to point out that joining festivals is only the first step: “We shouldn’t make films just for festivals. What we should aim for are a bigger audience and wider release in commercial theaters.”
Berlin, he explained, was a major market attended by numerous distributors, producers and other top industry leaders. “If a film competes in A-list festivals like Berlin, Cannes and Venice, it can attract potential buyers from all over the world.”
To illustrate: Mendoza’s “Lola,” which top-billed Anita Linda and Rustica Carpio, had a commercial run in France last year. He related, “‘Lola’ was also shown in eight cities in Brazil this year. It’s the first time that a Filipino film had a theatrical run in Brazil.”
He’s not setting his sights on Hollywood … not yet, anyway, although there has been talk that he could eventually cross over to the US film scene.
After serving as juror in Torino, Italy, Mendoza recently joined the jury of the Marrakech film festival, where he met Hollywood actors Sigourney Weaver (star of the “Alien” franchise) and Jessica Chastain (Brad Pitt’s costar in “The Tree of Life”).
Mendoza said Weaver had fond memories of Manila, where she shot the Peter Weir film, “The Year of Living Dangerously,” with Mel Gibson in the 1980s.
“Sigourney’s most striking memory, though, was that they had to leave for the airport in a huff because of some controversy,” Mendoza related. “Other than that, she said she adored the country and Filipinos and would love to go back.”
After telling the Oscar-nominated actress about Huppert and “Captive” (inspired by a real-life incident involving Americans kidnapped by bandits), Weaver jokingly quipped: “But I’m an American!” Said Mendoza, “That was to say I should cast her in my next film.”
Chastain told him that she’s a big fan of Huppert’s. “Funny thing was, we had the same choices for the top categories in Marrakech. When we realized this, Jessica told me, ‘Maybe, we should work together since we’re compatible.’”
In Morocco, Mendoza also renewed ties with acclaimed British director Terry Gilliam, who presented the best director award to him in Cannes two years ago.