“Just don’t ask me to deliver a line in Waray at this point,’’ Charo Santos jokingly pleaded with us at the mediacon of her new movie, Kun Maupay Man It Panahon (Whether the Weather is Fine), currently showing as one of eight entries to the Metro Manila Film Festival.
Charo thanked her co-actor Daniel Padilla, who grew up in Tacloban, Leyte, and the team’s dialog coach and staff, for helping her with her Visayan throughout the shoot.
‘’I accepted the movie because I was attracted to the story. That was enough motivation for me, and I also wanted to work with new directors like Carlo Francisco Manatad.’’
It was the same case with Daniel, who transitions to an even more serious actor through Kun Maupay, his first reality-based film.
On Dec. 27, Charo won Best Actress in a Leading Role while Daniel received the Jury Prize Award at the Metro Manila Film Festival 2021 Gabi ng Parangal.
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Recent news about the devastation spawned by typhoon Odette makes Kun Maupay the timeliest, most relevant participant in this year’s MMFF.
The globally recognized drama film narrates the aftermath of 2013 super-typhoon Yolanda from the personal experience of the director.
Its story is inspired by Manatad’s search for his family in Tacloban following the Yolanda tragedy. He couldn’t reach them for days.
“I tried to contact them, but all communication lines were damaged, and seeing the news then, one would think no one would survive the storm. Luckily, I was able to hitch on a plane carrying relief goods. I was the only passenger. When I arrived, my hometown was beyond recognition. All roads, structures, and any form of landmarks were gone. Mountains of dead bodies were scattered everywhere.”
After what seemed to be the longest day of his life, Carlo managed to find his loved ones—all 16 of them, plus their family dog—alive and well. When he returned to Manila, he could not shake off the horrifying experience.
Those days of searching and agony in Tacloban have now yielded a moving feature, Carlo’s first.
In doing the film, Carlo, a former film editor, feels the importance of discussing the reality of natural calamities.
“Climate change and disaster preparedness are the more urgent issues. These should be addressed by everyone and not be 'masked' or neglected by the sentimentality of resilience."
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The film, says Carlo, took off with backing from 11 companies from five different countries.
Kun Maupay had its world premiere at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland where it took home the Youth Jury Prize.
At the Toronto International Film Festival, Canadian critic Henry Tan of Universal Cinema hailed it for using Waray dialect, and bringing attention to how the Philippines responded post-Yolanda.
Tan wrote, “Whether the Weather is Fine... reminds the audience about the humanity in coming together to help the survivors move forward from a devastation.”
Kun Maupay Man It Panahon, introducing newcomer Rans Rifol, has traveled to 25 international film fests in a span of five months.