A road movie based on life

Sue Prado in “Teoriya”

Alfred Vargas waived his talent fee for “Teoriya,” a road movie that took him around the Zamboanga peninsula.

Vargas said he also bought his own plane tickets to help the director, Zurich Chan. “The film’s budget was not very big. I told the production team that, instead of spending a big portion on me, they should use it to improve the film,” Alfred told the Inquirer.

“Teoriya” is an entry in the New Breed Full-length category of the 7th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. The nine competing directors each received a seed grant of P500,000 from Cinemalaya Foundation.

“I had no idea that my expenses would multiply a [thousand-fold],” Zurich said. “Last year, I spent only P1,500 on my short film. I thought the grant was huge and that I could get crazy on it. But it was gone too soon … I had to ask my dad for help.”

“Teoriya” is Zurich’s first full-length feature. His short film, “Boca,” about chain smoking, was an entry last year. He was assistant director of the 2010 full-length entry “Halaw,” which won for Sheron Dayoc the best director award.

Pure, sincere

“The story [of ‘Teoriya’] is something I can very well relate to. I made it for my dad,” said Alfred. His father, Freddie, died of a heart attack early this year.

Alfred Vargas waives his talent fee to portray Jimmuel Apostol II.

“Alfred’s breakdown scene in this film is fantastic,” said Zurich. “You can’t find anything purer and more sincere than that.”

The story centers on Jimmuel Apostol II, who comes home to Zamboanga upon learning of the death of his father, whom he has not seen in 10 years. As Jimmuel looks for his dad’s grave, he gets to know the man through family and close friends.

“It’s somewhat based on my relationship with my dad,” the director said. “I wrote it imagining what I would do if my dad died.” Freddie Chan is a retired medical representative who traveled across Zamboanga.

Zurich admitted that having a big-name actor like Alfred didn’t work to his advantage. “People in Zamboanga knew him from the teleserye ‘Mutya.’ In the middle of a shoot, somebody would shout, ‘Prinsipe Irvin!’ We had to redo a lot of scenes.”

Helpful tip

Zurich thanked Zamboanga City mayor Celso Lobregat for giving cast and crew, especially Alfred, security escorts. “Two plainclothes men and 10 in full battle gear followed us everywhere,” Zurich said.

He said he learned a lot from making the film. “Preproduction is 50 percent of the whole thing. We ran into a lot of hitches. We would get delayed for an hour just to ask permission to use a certain facility. These things are really important.”

He advised aspiring filmmakers to “stick to three or four locations.” He explained,  “Since this is a road film, we had to set up the lights repeatedly and transport heavy equipment and crew members from one place to another. It was a headache.”

Despite this, Zurich said he was very satisfied with the outcome and will continue making more movies.

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