‘I don’t mind being the worst director’

As a filmmaker, or really as anyone whose work is put up to public scrutiny, you have to learn to take the good with the bad. And Brillante Mendoza, arguably one of the Philippines’ most respected filmmakers, has mastered that art.

For every congratulatory note, such as the one left by directing icon Quentin Tarantino in his hotel room congratulating him for his violent 2009 film Kinatey, there is a critic like Roger Ebert who called it one of the worst films he’s ever seen at the Cannes Film Festival.

“I don’t mind being the worst director, as long as I have my film shown at Cannes,” said Mendoza, 52, who went on to win the Best Director that year. “You get affected by it but at the end of the day, that’s what films are about — discussions. It will be boring if people say good things about your films all the time.”

Known for taking on powerful stories, from the brutal kidnap drama Kinatey to the hostage film Captive and to the Dubai International Film Festival 2009 Best Film winner Lola — about two elderly women involved in a crime — Mendoza returned to Diff this week with another stark film Thy Womb. Set in the exotic Filipino island province of Tawi-Tawi and starring acting legend Nora Anour, the film tells the story of an aging midwife, who resorts to desperate measures in order to realise her dream of bearing her husband a child.

Convincing Anour, who makes her return to acting after 11 years, was easy, reveals Mendoza.

“It’s all about the right timing. She was looking for a good script and when I approached her for this project, she was very excited. So it was easy to convince her.”

In the film, the desperation and pain Anour’s character feels, as she looks for a woman who would bear a child for her husband, is juxtaposed with the beautiful locales of Tawi-Tawi. A deliberate move, says Mendoza, who also wanted to explore the history and culture of the little-known province.

“You’d be surprised at how little people, even in the Philippines, know about this place,” says the director, who was given a grant by his country’s film commission to make a promotional film when he stumbled upon the story that would inspire his film. “Most people in the Philippines know it as a very violent place, with very aggressive people. But besides its beauty, it’s an island where Muslims and Christians have co-existed for many years.”

Thy Womb recently competed for the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival, where Mendoza won Best Director, and is contending for the $50,000 (Dh183,670) Muhr AsiaAfrica Best Film prize at Diff.

Mendoza, who wants to delve into the supernatural for his next film, says he will never make a commercial film.

“It’s just not me,” he says. “I’m not comfortable with that. It’s not that commercial films are bad or the people who make them are not real filmmakers. At the end of the day, we all cater to what people want and there is an audience for both kinds of films.

“I may not be even good at that,” he adds. “It’s just not the kind of world for me.”

Don’t Miss It

Thy Womb will be screened on December 15 at 8pm at Vox, Mall of the Emirates.