To say Brillante Mendoza’s last film “Kinatay,” which won him the Best Director award at Cannes in 2009, was contentious is an understatement. The film, about a kid who is roped into a job that involves him witnessing the murder of a stripper, was total dullsville. We almost fell asleep watching it and eventually walked out of the film (as did a good handful of other attendees at our screening, put off by a particularly pointless and cruel moment towards the end of the film) but inexplicably, the Cannes jury found something redeeming in the film, and it even got a champion out of Quentin Tarantino who wrote a letter of support to the director. Anyhow, one of the jury members who thought Mendoza did something brilliant with his last film which was pretty much one long, boring shot on ugly digi-cam, is set to join his next project.
Isabelle Huppert will be joining Mendoza’s “Captured” which will begin shooting sometime next year. The film will “tell the story about a foreign missionary (Huppert) who is caught up in a hostage-taking of foreign nationals by Philippine group Abu Sayyaf.” The film is still seeking financing, but with Huppert on board it should make that task a bit easier.
For the record, we did like Mendoza’s “Serbis” (though we would never watch it again) and despite “Kinatay” making us regret walking into that screening, we are curious to see what this director has up his sleeve.
