2 Pinoy films bag awards at Berlinale film fest

Filipino films Tirador and “The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela" bagged the Caligari Award and the best feature film, respectively, at the recently concluded Berlinale Film Festival, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported on Tuesday. Tirador(slingshot), a film on small-time crooks set in the backdrop of the Nazarene feast and “The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela," about a poor transvestite pornstar dreaming of finding his prince at the Champs-Elysees, are the two big winners in the 58th Berlin International Film Festival that took place from February 7 to 17. The Caligari is the second international award for Tirador, which also won the Special Jury Award in Marrakech last December. The Caligari Award is considered as the most important distinction of the Berlinale section— International Forum of New Cinema while the Teddy Award is for films that have gay and/or lesbian context. Tirador, which debuted in the international film circuit in 2007, is the Brillante Mendoza’s fifth film to win an award outside the country after Masahista (the Masseur), Kaleldo (Summer Heat), Manoro, and “Foster Child." The three-person jury lauded Mendoza’s film for its “breathless handheld-camera, de-saturated colors and pulsating sounds of the city that equally create and catch an atmosphere of urban unrest, imparting a vivid cinema experience without exploiting the slum as exotic scenery," the DFA statement said. On the other hand, “The Amazing Truth" is a Philippine-Icelandic film co-production directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson and stars Raquela Rios and Stefan Schaefer. The film won rave reviews from the jury for its “ability to address race, gender and poverty in an entertaining way, while also playing with audiences’ expectations of form." Four other Filipino films were screened in the Berlinale: Tribu, directed by Jim Libiran; “The Muzzled Horse of an Engineer in Search of Mechanical Saddles," directed by Khavn de la Cruz; “Balikbayan Box," directed by Mes de Guzman and “Years When I was a Child Outside" (Family Multi Channel), directed by John Torres. - Mark Ubalde, GMANews.TV