Jaclyn Jose embraces director Brillante Mendoza as her daughter Andi Eigenmann looks on after being awarded the Best Actress prize for 'Ma' Rosa' during the 2016 Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony. (Photo : Getty Images/Pascal Le Segretain)
62nd Cannes Film Festival Best Director Brillante Mendoza recently returned to the glamorous French Mediterranean resort of Cannes for the biggest film festival in the world. While he did not bag the Best Director award for the second time, his film "Ma' Rosa" earned its lead star Jaclyn Jose the Best Actress award beating Academy Award winners Charlize Theron and Marion Cotillard.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Mendoza talked about the story of "Ma' Rosa," which revolves around Jose's character who owns a convenience store in a poor neighborhood in Manila while selling drugs with her husband Nestor (Julio Diaz). The couple are detained by corrupt police officers and their children Jackson (Felix Roco), Raquel (Andi Eigenmann) and Erwin (Jomari Angeles) have to find the money to pay for their parents' freedom.
"This situation is really happening back in the Philippines," Mendoza told the publication. The award-winning Filipino director described it as "a painful truth" adding that it is "quite alarming because it comes to a way of life" and something has to be done.
Mendoza explained that he decided to make a story out of the situation involving the small-time drug selling. For him, the story has wider appeal because the Philippines is not the only country where corruption is a problem and there is a much bigger corruption happening across the globe maybe on a different scale.
"Ma' Rosa" was one of the 21 films that competed for the 2016 Cannes Film Festival's top Palme d'Or prize, which was awarded to Ken Loach's "I, Daniel Blake." The Filipino film is Mendoza's fourth film in the festival.
It was "Serbis" that marked Mendoza's Cannes debut in 2008 and he returned in 2009 for his film "Kinatay," which earned him the first Best Director award from the festival won by a Filipino filmmaker. In 2015, Mendoza's "Taklub" won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury- Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival.
Written by Troy Espiritu, "Ma' Rosa" also stars Baron Geisler, Mon Confiado, Neil Ryan Sese, Ma. Isabel Lopez, Mark Anthony Fernandez and John Paul Duray. The film will be submitted to the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival, Rappler quoted Mendoza as saying.
Watch the "Ma' Rosa" trailer here:
