UAE-based Pinoy director wins award in Paris

A 45-year-old designer at a multinational supermarket chain in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has won an award for his film at the Paris International Film Awards on May 27.

“I honestly didn't expect to win but I am confident I will bring a good fight. Fortunately enough, the Paris International Film Awards has proven me wrong – I should not have belittled my works,” shared Francis Luscianne Javier Gacer who just won three awards at the Nawada International Film Festival 18 days ago. 

“Picking the casts and convincing them is never a difficulty because in Kiko Man Films, we rotate the members in terms of exposure. As soon as the cycle is designated to Jennelyn Empasis, it was an instant head-nod of affirmation because I know how versatile she is and so are the rest of the cast,” the director of KMF added in an interview via email on May 29, referring to the 29-year-old nanny of a Lebanese family and native of Agusan del Sur.

“Limbaswang” is about a family in Capiz, a “voodoo-known province” in the Philippines, who buried a wooden box of incantation. It was discovered by a young woman years later and used against her older sister.

“Basically the message of the film is about the veracity of demon possession and the existing superstitious beliefs in the Philippines, particularly in the province of Capiz. In the film, I also have portrayed how simple and yet exuberant the Philippine culture is even in its remote areas.”

And though he loves making horror films because they require all the artistic techniques and flairs he knew, Gacer maintains that he does it not “for the sake of experiencing it and self-fulfillment but because he found an effective recipe for a film masterpiece.”

“In regard to every horror film that I make, such as ‘Kudlit’, I use the same principle and drive. Hence, producing a film that people would talk about.”

As of this writing, Gacer’s “Papel Sa Poste” that got officially selected for the Prague International Film Awards at about the same time with “Limbaswang,” has become a finalist. —LBG, GMA News