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Motherland, by veteran Filipino auteur Brillante Mendoza, had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival (Biff).

Mendoza told Deadline about his motivation to make Motherland, shooting his next film Chameleon and the challenges that the Filipino film industry is currently facing.

The making of Motherland

The film follows the story of Dao-ayen, a member of the Philippines’ Special Action Force (Saf), from the Ifugao tribe in northern Luzon. Dao-ayen was part of the 2015 Mamasapano raid that resulted in the deaths of 44 members of the Philippines’ Special Action Force (Saf).

“What really affected me about this incident was actually the story of the foot soldiers,” Mendoza said. “They are the ones who were affected by the miscommunication from their superiors and the president himself, and these soldiers suffered and gave their lives for their country. At the end of the day, there is a question of whether their sacrifices were worth it.

Box Office

Gross box office in the European Union (EU) and the U.K. grew by 70% in 2022 compared with 2021 – from €3 billion ($3.27 billion) to €5.1 billion ($5.57 billion), down by 28% on pre-pandemic levels. The numbers were revealed in the 2023 edition of Focus – World Film Market Trends, a report which is prepared each year for the Cannes film market.

Three U.S. films, “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru” topped the European charts in 2022, selling 34.4 million, 30.6 and 30.2 million tickets throughout the calendar year respectively. Cinema attendance in the EU and the U.K. increased by 63% from 403 million tickets sold in 2021 to an estimated 657 million in 2022, representing 67% of the average pre-pandemic admission level registered between 2017 and 2019.

European films also performed well and market share for European films increased year-on-year from 26.8% to 28.4% in 2022, the report recorded. It also notes that film production in the EU and the U.

Directed by Roderick Cabrido, Exorcism of Clarita has possessed theaters and will take over On Demand and digital platforms this fall. Also in today's Horror Highlights: the season 3 trailer for Gemr's Collection Complete, Travel Channel's Ghostober programming details and Rapid Eye Movement trailer and release details.

Exorcism of Clarita Release Details: "A group of doctors was killed by supernatural forces, Fathers Salvador and Benedicto will have their faith tested when they are tasked to perform an exorcism on a possessed woman named Clarita.

1953 - A group of doctors is killed by supernatural forces linked to a possessed woman named Clarita. The Catholic Church sends Fathers Salvador and Benedicto who are tasked to perform an exorcism. Meanwhile, a photojournalist investigates the truth about Clarita's possession and helps the two priests perform the exorcism. Their journey to help Clarita shakes their faith as they face demonic encounters.

Starring:

Jodi Sta.Maria, Ricky Davao,...

In one sequence in Milo Sogueco's Mariquina, shoemaker Romeo (Ricky Davao, who inhabits the role with unabashed fragility) attempts to salvage whatever he can save in his warehouse from the flood. His teenage daughter, Imelda (Barbie Forteza, who inhabits the delicate role with laudable maturity) suddenly appears in the scuffle, wanting to help or at least express some concern over her father's misfortune. Romeo, flared by desperation in the face of the threat of ruin, coldly orders his daughter to return to her room and to leave everything to him. Mariquina is peppered with sequences like this, sequences that subtly expose the cracks and fissures in the relationship between father and daughter. In that particular flood sequence, Sogueco smartly reveals Romeo's enduring conflict and also his...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Jose Javier Reyes' Working Girls is a disappointment. Just like the counterfeit bags one of Reyes' characters peddles to her internet clients, the film hardly matches the 1984 Ishmael Bernal satire with the same title that it supposedly updates. Even if independently assessed of Bernal's acclaimed urban comedy, Working Girls is still an unforgivably incoherent, annoyingly shallow, and ultimately pointless exercise. In an interview, Reyes admits that this film was made as a sort of tribute to Bernal and Amado Lacuesta, screenwriter of the 1984 comedy. Given Reyes' intentions for writing and directing this update of Bernal's classic, I can only conclude that this films' biggest achievement is that it will inevitably raise awareness of the existence of Bernal's film, and hopefully gain for it more followers.

 

Perhaps my displeasure for Reyes' film is a tad exaggerated. Reyes, I admit, is a very smart and able writer whose gift for gab...