Taking Pinoy filmmaking to the world stage yet again
“Ang Pagbabalik ng Kwago” (“Leonor Will Never Die”) is about to make its world premiere as it has been selected to compete in the World Cinema Dramatic competition of the Sundance Film Festival 2022.
After eight years, the production of the film, directed and penned by Martika Ramirez Escobar, was finally completed during the pandemic. Its plot centers on Leonor Reyes, a retired action film writer and director in the ‘80s, who enters the world of her unfinished screenplay after experiencing a coma when a television landed on her head. Leading its cast is stage veteran Sheila Francisco as Leonor, alongside actors Rocky Salumbides, Bong Cabrera, Anthony Falcon, Rea Molina, Tami Monsod, Allan Bautista, and Dido de la Paz.
Another Filipino film premiering at the 38th edition of the film festival is director Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan’s “The Headhunter’s Daughter” at its Shorts Program 4. The Ifugao-Visayan director isn’t new to having his works featured in international festivals. Among them are the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival, and the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival where his short film “Hilum” won the Student Prize and Special Mention from the International Jury.
The Philippines had its first entry to the festival with Ramona S. Diaz’s documentary film “Imelda” where it won the Excellence in Cinematography Award Documentary, according to the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
The Sundance Film Festival 2022 is happening from Jan.20 to 30, 2022.