The 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam, that opens January 27, presents a strong Philippine selection of eleven works in various festival sections. Among these, three films were supported by the festival’s Hubert Bals Fund.

Filmmakers Adolfo Alix Jr, and Khavn De La Cruz each present two films. Other filmmakers in Official Rotterdam 2010 Selection are Pepe Diokno, John Torres, Mes De Guzman, Joanna Vasquez Arong, Sari Lluch Dalena, Raya Martin and Raymond Red. All will be attending the festival.

John Torres presents ANG NINANAIS (REFRAINS HAPPEN LIKE REVOLUTIONS IN A SONG), a Hubert Bals Fund supported feature film in which the protagonist, the girl Sarah, moves among the inhabitants of Guimbal on the island of Panay and improvises her scenes. The film maker also follows his dreams and collects stories and poetry. The great poets Eric Gamalinda and Joel Toledo are quoted, but also dialogues in the Hiligaynon language are included without translation in the film for their sound, as music.

Mes De Guzman returns to Rotterdam with his Hubert Bals Fund supported feature film ANG MUNDO SA PANAHON NG BATO (STONE IS THE EARTH). De Guzman wraps the topical issue of child labor in a small family story: on the day when Vergel returns from the mines, the calm life of his little brothers and his sister is disrupted. When gold is then found on their agricultural land, his caring slowly changes to greed.

Khavn De La Cruz presents the feature film CAMEROON LOVE LETTER (FOR SOLO PIANO), his contribution to the IFFR 2010’s focus program on African cinema. He gave his take on Cameroon an outspoken musical and poetic form also thanks to the popularity in Cameroon of Philippine soap series Pangako Sa ‘Yo’ (The Promise). At a serious level, Khavn refers to the film couple Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc, who were brutally murdered in 2009.

ULTIMO: DISTINTAS MANERAS A MATAR UN HÉROE NACIONAL (ULTIMO) is Khavn’s second film in Official IFFR 2010 Selection. This short documentary, part of Rotterdam festival’s theme section ‘After Victory’ is an adaptation of the poem ‘Mi ultimo adiós’ (My Last Goodbye) by Jose Rizal (1896).

‘After Victory’, a program of films about the consequences of warfare, further includes the US/Philippine documentary MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN WAR (2001) by Sari Lluch Dalena & Camilla Benolirao Griggers and Raya Martin’s INDEPENDENCIA. Telling the story of the American occupation of The Philippines in the early twentieth century, INDEPENDENCIA was selected for CineMart in 2007, took the Prince Claus Fund Film Grant for Best CineMart Project and was supported by Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund. It went on to premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Beijing-based Philippine filmmaker Joanna Vasquez Arong also contributes to IFFR 2010’s focus on African cinema. She presents SUNDAY SCHOOL, a 45-minute film about an encounter between two women filmmakers: Arong Vasquez went to Zambia to make a portrait of the Zambian film maker Musola Cathrine Kaseketi, who has made documentaries and short films. The African focus programme includes Kaseketi's first full-length feature, SUWI.

Pepe Diokno’s feature film ENKWENTRO (CLASH) is part of Rotterdam’s main section ‘Bright Future’ for first and second time filmmakers. This compelling début by twenty-two-year-old Diokno was awarded the Venice Film Festival’s Lion of the Future Award for a Debut Film and Orizzonti Prize for new trends in cinema. Raw and realistic, ENKWENTRO tells the story of two brothers who fight in a Philippine slum against gangs and government supported death squads.

Selected for Rotterdam’s main section Spectrum, Adolfo Alix Jr presents two new works: KARERA (ANTE), an intense drama feature about the Domingo family trying to survive in their own clumsy way and wrestling with dilemmas in an immoral society, and Hubert Bals Fund supported feature film AURORA in which Alix Jr tackles a political subject for the first time: in the heart of the jungle, social worker Aurora is kidnapped by a group of Moslem rebels.

The third Philippine film in IFFR’s main section Spectrum is Raymond Red’s feature film HIMPAPAWID (MANILA SKIES). Protagonist Raul, a country boy who desperately searches for work in Manila, commits a robbery but panics at the high point and flees before finally breaking out of the vicious circle with violence. In reaction to the grainy, hand-held style that is now popular in Filipino independent cinema, MANILA SKIES was filmed with the very sharp digital RED ONE system.

Screening times and ticket information are available from Thursday January 21, 2010 through www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com