Film Screening: «Mindanao» by Brillante Ma. Mendoza
Casa Asia broadens its cinema series «The New Filipino cinema» with a screening of Mindanao (Philippines, 2019), the lates movie by controversial and awarded Filipino director Brillante Ma. Mendoza.
This series responds to the rise of the most current and popular Filipino cinema while taking into account the existence of an independent cinema that has developed in parallel with commercial cinema since its inception. This independent cinema that started strongly in its first phase, between 1950 and 1970, and then between 1970 and 1980, the decade in which it radicalized, coexists with a cinema that tries to cover all genres and reach wider audiences. The Philippine film industry has been one of the most powerful in Southeast Asia throughout the 20th century (oscillating between its most influential eras and those of less impact, concurring with the economic circumstances of the country). For some time now, there has been a new boom in this more popular and closer cinema, which deals with everyday life in all its dimensions, with a clear preference for the dramatic genre.
Saturday, 12th of June, 2021, 20.00h
MINDANAO | Dir: Brillant Ma. Mendoza | 2019 | 124 ‘| drama | VOSE
Saima takes care of her daughter Aisa, who is sick with cancer, in a rehabilitation centre in Davao, while waiting for her husband, Malang, combat medic, to come back home after an operation at the province of Maguindanao. Saima is aware that some patients overcome the illness but others don’t; Malang, on the other hand, has seen death at the battlefield. While waiting, Saima tells the legend of Rajah and Sulayman, to hold onto hope, and to help her daughter and husband to avoid death.
Brillante Ma. Mendoza
He is one of the most famous Filipino filmmakers internationally, given his prolific career. In 2009, he obtained the Best Director Award for his movie Kinatay at Cannes Film Festival. In 2012, his film The Womb received two awards at the Venice Film Festival. With Mindanao, his latest movie, Mendoza tries to get us to know the experience of death in Filipino culture.
