Brillante Mendoza talks Cannes winner 'Ma'Rosa'

In preparation for the Philippine release of his latest film 'Ma'Rosa', Brillante Mendoza talks about the challenges on making the film during its production.

"What seems to be a simple production endeavor is actually a formidable challenge to any filmmaker because even though this was filmed in a minimalist manner, the truth is we are still doing a feature film with real actors trained in different disciplines of acting," Mendoza said. "In able for us to capture the precision raw emotions, I told them to throw away everything that they have learned in their acting profession and just act plain and natural as their characters since they should blend with non-actors on screen."

In 'Ma'Rosa', Mendoza returns to tackle the subject of crime lurking inside the city of Manila. The Cannes winning director also recounted how the theme of family have a huge impact in creating the background of the film.

"'Ma‘Rosa' shows us a glimpse of a Filipino family set on a typical district in Manila, giving us a slice of life in a community," Mendoza said. "The idea of this film came up four years ago when I became indirectly involved with the said incident. It captured my interest to tell this story because it shows a unique but also disturbing characteristic of a common Filipino family. In a society where survival of the fittest is a fact that we have to live with, family becomes amoral.

Mendoza added that the actors were never given a copy of the script, and a lot of scenes in the film were improvised.

"Dialogues were delivered very naturally as they depend on their personal instincts throughout the film. In fact, sequences were filmed in the same order as the story so that the actors can relate to the plight of their character as the shooting progresses. The feeling of uncertainty must materialize on screen as the editing subscribes to the main character’s point-of-view as we follow their account of what transpired that evening."

What's next for Mendoza? "A lot of films are in the pipeline. Also a bigger Sinag Maynila for 2017. There is of course the The Brillante Mendoza Film Workshop which is part of my advocacy to “rethink and redefine cinema," Mendoza disclosed. "This is also my way of giving back and training new generations of film makers and storytellers."

Ma' Rosa is Mendoza’s 4th film to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival in France. The first one was Serbis in 2008, which was nominated for the coveted Palme d'Or (Golden Palm). In 2009, Mendoza won Best Director at Cannes for his film Kinatay, and in 2015, his movie Taklub was given the Ecumenical Jury-Prize Special Mention.

Ma’Rosa gave the Philippines and Southeast Asia its first acting award when Jaclyn Jose won as Best Actress in the 69th Cannes Film Festival. Among the nominees were Charlize Theron, Marion Cotillard, Isabelle Huppert, and Kristen Stewart.

Ma’Rosa is opening this July 6 in cinemas nationwide from Solar Pictures.