Allen Dizon declared best actor in Italy for ‘intense, painful’ performance

Allen Dizon (right) with Katrina Halili in “AbeNida”    

Allen Dizon brought home another best actor award, this time for Louie Ignacio’s drama, “AbeNida,” in the 2nd International Imago Film Festival di Civitella del Tronto in Teramo, Italy.

“For actors, it’s always a wonderful surprise to win awards. You always feel the excitement. An award is a validation and the result of your hard work. It’s the reward you get for sharing your talent with your audience,” Dizon said on receiving the Humphrey Bogart trophy or the best lead actor of a foreign movie award. The festival ran from July 27 to Aug. 3.

“Receiving an award from this particular festival, even though it has only been running for two years, is important to me because it is a prestigious one. It’s not merely an online festival that gives awards monthly and asks for an entry fee. It organized actual physical screenings, had a respectable set of jury and a formal awards ceremony,” Dizon explained.

‘Most difficult’

“AbeNida” is loosely based on the story of a sculptor from Paete, Laguna. Dizon said that, prior to shooting, he tried to learn as much as he could about the person. He did “some immersion” for a few days before commencing filming.

“The film is seen from the point of view of a woodcarver with mental health problems. He feels devastated after his wife, Nida, whom he cared for so much, leaves him for another man. This led him to create ‘different realities’ that eventually destroyed his life,” Dizon told Inquirer Entertainment on Monday morning.

“In the end, his wife returns and this makes him realize that he has to set himself free from a destructive relationship. A tragedy will eventually set him free completely.”

He said “AbeNida” was the most difficult film he has done so far. “My character’s craziness here is internal. All my moves had to be calculated and my nuances, very clear. I had to be constantly on guard to make sure that my acting was not over the top,” he began.

Dizon said he felt extremely challenged by the fact that he had “to act as a person suffering from mental illness and depression in a very subdued manner. I had to be able to show that his condition is gradually deteriorating through the use of facial expressions and body language.

Even in the last scene I did, which was done in one take, I needed to be subtle because direk said this was more effective. The role is actually very complex and demanding.”

Artistic

It was later in the interview that Dizon mentioned that “AbeNida” required him to do frontal nudity. “I have this one scene here where, after totally losing mental capacity, I walked naked under the pouring rain. The scene was beautifully filmed, very artistic, not offensive at all,” he recalled.

The festival jury cited Dizon’s performance as “intense, complicated, painful, but still credible… Dizon’s interpretation in ‘AbeNida’ is a very successful manifestation of true art.”

“The construction of the torment and tormented daily life of a man broken by lost passions, by love betrayed to faith denied, is in a fresco of skilled chiaroscuro which the actor outlines without ever slipping into exaggeration,” the citation reads.

“The hints of lucid madness and crazy lucidity is entrusted to a skillful and silent mimicry, which evokes ancient oriental theater traditions, however revealing the great work of preparations of an actor with crystalline talent,” the jury stated.

“AbeNida,” produced by BG Productions International, also stars Katrina Halili and Gina Pareño. INQ