cesar’s conquest by ricky lo from philippines star january 14, 2008
May 28, 2008
THE DARK HORSE TURNED OUT TO BE BIGGEST WINNER IN METRO FILM FEST
MANILA, JANUARY 14, 2008 (STAR) CONVERSATIONS With Ricky Lo -
Cesar’s Conquest: The dark horse turned out to be the biggest winner in the biggest upset ever in the history of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), with a greenhorn beating two veteran directors in the Best Director competition.
Hail, Cesar!
“It caught me by surprise,” said Cesar Apolinario (who also bagged the Best Story award), 34, the GMA field reporter whose movie directorial debut, Comguild Films’ Banal, got the judges’ nod over the two entries each of multi-awarded directors Joel Lamangan (Bahay Kubo and Desperadas, both by Regal Films) and Joey Javier Reyes (Star Cinema’s Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo, the top-grosser, and Maverick Films’ Katas ng Saudi which won for Jinggoy Estrada the Best Actor award).
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“I thought I didn’t stand a chance in the Best Director competition,” added Cesar who was flattered when direk Joey approached him after the Gabi ng Parangal and gave him a warm congratulatory hug, saying, “You deserve it. Welcome to the club!”
Direk Cesar joins the growing roster of new directors who gain recognition with their first work, including Jeffrey Jeturian (Sana Pagibig Na) and Lav Diaz (Ang Kriminal ng Bo. Concepcion), classified an “indie” films done on a shoe-string budget. It must be interesting to note that Jeturian and Diaz’s films were the products of Regal Matriarch Mother Lily’s much-maligned pito-pito films (small-budgetted projects shot in seven days) which paved the way for the indie-digital films now lording over the industry and winning awards both here and abroad.
Did you have any idea, no matter how far-fetched, that you would turn out to be the dark horse in the Metro Filmfest?
“No, I did not. With Joel and Joey, two of my idols, in the competition, I didn’t expect anything. But from the start, I was sure I had a fighting chance in the Best Story competition. I wouldn’t have felt bad if I lost to Joel and Joey whom I respect so much. I was apologetic to Joey because, if I were in his shoes, I would feel a bit bad to be beaten by a bagito. Pero bumilib ako sa kanya. With that warm hug, I idolized him even more. I saw his film, Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo in last year’s Metro Filmfest, and I loved that movie.”
Did you feel bad that Banal didn’t win even as one of the three Best Pictures (Resiklo was first, Sakal Sakali Saklolo second and Enteng Kabisote: Okay Ka, Fairy Ko, the Beginning of a Legend third)?
“One of the criteria for an entry to win as Best Picture was that it had to be a top-grosser. My bet was Katas ng Saudi and Joey could have won as Best Director for it. I saw the movie. It’s brilliant! Very Filipino. I could identify with the character of Jinggoy (Estrada, Best Actor, as an OFW who finds himself alienated by and from his family when he comes home after years in Saudi) because I was once also an OFW.”
Why did you say you had more chances for the Best Story than for the Best Director award?
“Because the story of Banal is something new, something timely and relevant to what’s happening in our police force today. Naiiba at makabuluhan. I think it’s the first time for a local movie to show how the police force really works. In past movies, the cops were portrayed as slow foot, palaging huli sa scene of the crime. Well, it does happen but not all the time. I should know. As a field reporter, I have a close-up view of how the cops work, especially during hostage crises when I and my colleagues find ourselves in the center of the action.”
So you drew a lot from your experience as a field reporter in writing the Banal story.
“Yes, of course. As we went along, I would review the script and make suggestions based on my actual knowledge of police work.”
The centerpiece of the story is the assassination attempt on The Pope when he visited the Philippines in 1995 (during the World Youth Day), isn’t it?
“I was a student at UST at that time and I was among the ROTC cadets who helped guard The Pope. But the incident included in Banal is not the 1995 incident but was just based on it. Had I set the attempt in 1995, we would have to spend more to recreate that period. Eh, we didn’t have that kind of budget.”
Why did you call it Banal? Was there any attempt at, you know, portraying the cops and military men as “saints,” holy?
“When you say ‘banal,’ it means ‘holy,’ doesn’t it? I don’t believe that if a person is good, he’s ‘holy.’ There are bad men and criminals who are not aware that they are doing something that can be considered ‘banal.’ The characters in the story, whether the good and the bad, do something na kabanal-banalan. Like the character of Pepe Smith…a thief and a drug addict who uncovered the plot to assassinate The Pope.”
How much of the story is fact and how much is fiction?
“Before writing the story, I interviewed cops and military men. I based some of the characters on real-life people and some of the incidents on actual incidents. I think 70 percent of the story is fact and 30 percent fiction. I have a friend who’s a colonel and when I told him about the story, he liked it because he was not happy with the way cops were portrayed in movies. So he suggested that we do a movie showing the cops in action and the risks they have to take in the pursuit of duty.”
How were you able to convince Ina to finance the production?
“Ina is business-minded, an actress making a comeback. She wants to help the industry in her own little way. I won’t tell you what the exact budget of the movie is but i’s really ‘shoe-string.’ We shot it in 12 days, so we wouldn’t go beyond the budget. We never expected that it would be included in the Metro Filmfest.”
And you were able to hire the service of a superstar like Christopher de Leon.
“His manager, Nanay Lolit (Solis), assured me that Christopher would do the movie because the role was good, one that he has never played before. He read the script and it was smooth sailing for us after that. I don’t think Ina even had to haggle over Christopher’s talent fee. We’re eternally grateful to Christopher, and Nanay Lolit, for the favor. Two other stars in the cast, Paolo Contis and Alfred Vargas, are also Nanay Lolit’s alaga (talents). In fairness, the critics took note of Paolo and Alfred’s performances, along with other members of the cast. The two play off-beat roles. For a change, Alfred is the bad guy and Paolo is the good guy.”
At what point in your life did you realize that you wanted to be a director?
“The one that left such an impact on me was Silence of the Lambs, starring Jodie Foster who also happens to be one of my favorite directors.”
But film is not an alien territory to you, is it?
“I was still in school when I started doing short films that I entered in competitions. That was in 1993 and I was at PSBA (Philippine School of Business Administration) taking up Accountancy; my forte then was Math. I moved to UST and shifted to Communication Arts, taking 27 units. I cross-enrolled for a film course at UP because I was really fascinated by film-making. We were poor; I come from a big brood, the youngest of eight children, and we were living at a squatters area in Novaliches, Quezon City. I was the only one who was able to go to college.”
Oh, parang pelikula pala ang buhay mo, puedeng i-dramatize sa Magpakailanman.
“I was a working student. I worked at RPN 9 for six months, with the program Helpline sa 9 which was about battered women. I directed some of the reenactments for the show. I was studying and working at the same time. It was hard. I hardly had time to sleep. Wala akong pahinga. Even before I enrolled at PSBA, I was an OFW, working as a food attendant for three years in Bahrain. I had just turned 18 then. I really saved because I wanted to go to college.”
How did you get into the movies?
“While at UP, I saw Peque Gallaga and I told him, ‘Direk, gusto ko magtrabaho sa inyo, kahit anong trabaho.’ He told me to report the next day to the set of Magic Kingdom he took me in as production assistant. Ang mga stars ay sina Alessandra de Rossi at Anne Curtis. They were new then and now, look, big stars na sila. When the shooting was done in Baguio, I quit because I didn’t want to miss my studies. Sir Peque was very understanding. I told him that I worked as an OFW to save money for school and he said, ‘Choose your studies.’ Sir Peque was very kind to me.”
And then, what?
“I also worked at MOWELFUND for one year, with Nick de Ocampo also as production assistant and casting director for his movie Mother Ignacia. MOWELFUND is an institution at talagang na-train ako doon nang husto. I observed budding directors at work, like Aureaus Solito (director of the award-winning indie film Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros).”
When did you move to GMA?
“In 1999. First, I worked as researcher for I-Witness, hosted by Luchi Cruz-Valdez (now with ABS-CBN). After six months, in 2000, Ma’m Luchi assigned me to the News Department as a field reporter. Until last year, I was one of the host-writers for Reporters’ Notebook (with Jiggy Manicad and Maki Pulido) which featured in-depth, investigative stories. It was challenging. I learned how to compress a long, complicated story into a 10-minute episode. Kailangan maingat ka sa editing at sa pagpili ng detalye, so you could tell the whole story in so limited a time. I also did a docu on Payatas, which was the first Filipino docu in video that made it to the Hawaii Film Festival, Official Selection Category. It cost barely P10,000 to make. I was flattered dahil naka-linya ko ‘yung mga big-budgeted docus, one of which was narrated by Liam Neeson.”
After Banal, what?
“I want to do a film about the Aetas — you know, why they wander in the city, why they end up as katulong and what their chances for advancement are.”
