Brilliante outshines Tarantino, Ang Lee in Cannes
Posted on May 25th, 2009 under We are Pinoys!
Brilliante Mendoza
The Cannes Film Festival has a new star in Filipino director Brillante Mendoza. The Kapampangan filmmaker beat acclaimed directors Ang Lee, Pedro Almodovar, Jane Campion and Quentin Tarantino to capture the best director award in the 2009 edition.
Mendoza won the prestigious citation for his work “Kinatay” (Butchered) which features corrupt cops hacking a prostitute to pieces with blunt kitchen knives.
“I am very happy with the honor,” Brilliante said.
As the first Filipino to win the Best Director prize in Cannes, he joins the list of revered filmmakers who have won the coveted prize, including Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Robert Bresson, Costa Gavras, Bernard Tavernier, Werner Herzog, Robert Altman, Joel Coen, Pedro Almodovar and Gus Van Sant.
Mendoza was at Cannes for the second year running. His entry last year was “Serbis,” set in a Manila porn-theatre with long close-ups of festering boils and overflowing toilets, as well as the poverty and distress on the streets.
A scene from “Kinatay”
“I feel humbled and privileged to be in competition for two consecutive years and to be alongside the giants and the biggest names in the film industry,” Mendoza said before the awards night.
Mendoza in “Kinatay” traces 24 hours in the day of a trainee policeman, happily beginning with his wedding in the morning to close with the young man’s first outing at night with a band of corrupt colleagues.
To his surprise, fear and anguish, they pick up a prostitute accused of betrayal and wind up torturing, raping, killing and hacking her before disposing of the body parts across Manila.
“This is not just entertainment, these kinds of stories are real,” Mendoza said at Cannes.
Last year was the first time since 1984 the Philippines had a film competing for the top prize at Cannes, the Palme d’Or.
This is exhilirating news! Congratulations Direk Brillante Mendoza and team!
I am based in Boracay Island so pardon my question, i was just wondering if this film was or will be shown in the Philippines? Perhaps, given the high acclaim, it must be shown with a grand premiere, if not in commercial cinemas, at least in select theaters nationwide.
“This is not just entertainment, these kinds of stories are real..” thus said Cannes Best-Director Awardee Brillante Mendoza of his creative work “Kinatay.” More than the accolades he received for his brilliant achievement, Mendoza should be commended for exposing a corrupt police SOP (standard operating practice) that dates back to the Marcos era and the dreaded MISG “torture boys.” The SOP of “stage-managing encounters with so-called criminal elements”(read, innocent civilians like the prostis, addicts, etc.) that end up being reported as “rape/salvage/rubout victims”are usually practice torture and “katay” sessions that test the mettle of these new police recruits on how they handle or numb their senses of the inherent blood and gore of their trade. For letting the “cat out of the bag,” congrats, Direk Dante!
This SOP actually is a built-in support method in aid of quarterly or annual performance evaluation that entails policemen due for promotion to engage in actual combat or encounters with criminals in fulfillment of the prerequisites of an established police quota system. Hence when these policemen cram for this requirement, they prey on innocent civilians by resorting to the following modus operandi: planting of evidence like marijuana sticks or shabu sachets; substitution of guns and ammo in so-called “hot-cars;” that is the standard “rubout” nowadays; and the gangland execution of cohorts in the underworld a la “Kuratong Baleleng” when the “bosses up there” order the “termination of their services” that is eventually reported as shootouts. Perhaps, our Direk Dante is planning a sequel for “Kinatay” in the tradition of the Godfather series. That would indeed be welcome news worthy of landing the pages of Rico’s “GoodNews Pilipinas! How about it Direk, Rico and of course our drumbeater, Ruben Nepales?