PH film wins in Brazil

Jana Agoncillo in “Nervous Translation”

Shireen Seno’s “Nervous Translation” bagged the Abraccine Prize (Critics’ Prize) at the recent 7th Olhar de Cinema Curitiba International Film Festival in Paraná, Brazil.

“I am surprised and thankful,” Seno said of her film’s latest award. Her film previously won the Netpac Award at the Rotterdam fest.

The Cinema One film centers on an overseas Filipino worker’s precocious child, played by young star Jana Agoncillo, who received rave reviews from jurors and critics.

“I’m so proud of Jana,” Seno told the Inquirer. “She captured the nuances of the curiosity and mystery that is childhood. She was amazing to work with.”

The filmmaker gleefully reported that Agoncillo had just received nominations “both locally and internationally,” including a nod for best actress in the Asian New Talent competition at the Shanghai fest.

The Curitiba jury commended the film for its “density and accuracy in the aesthetic translation” of a little girl’s world, which is “divided between childhood and forced maturity, between reality and fantasy, and above all by the obstinacy to recover lost absences from the distant father and the present mother.”

The jury likewise hailed Agoncillo’s “touching performance.”

On the website Medium, jury member Emanuela Siqueira described the child actress as “sensational.”

Siqueira summed up the film as “the union of precise aesthetic management with an incredible orchestration of character, expertly incarnated by Agoncillo.”

According to its website, the fest “highlights and celebrates independent cinema” from all over the world.

The fest turns the spotlight on films that “risk new forms of cinematic language, which are open to experimentation and yet possess a great potential for communication with the public.”