Leonor Will Never Die | Ang Pagbabalik ng Kwago

Leonor Will Never Die is produced by Arkeofilms and Anima.

This is the first fiction feature of 29-year old Martika Ramirez Escobar.

It won the Sundance Jury Award for Innovative Spirit in 2022 for the World Dramatic Competition. The opening film of Cinemalaya 2022 and the closing film of the Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness Section.

Written and Directed by

Martika Ramirez Escobar

 

Leonor Will Never Die

Ang Pagbabalik ng Kwago

 

Starring

Sheila Francisco

Bong Cabrera

Rocky Salumbides

Anthony Falcon

 

Producers

Monster Jimenez

Mario Cornejo

 

Executive Producers

Aurora Oreta

Martika Ramirez Escobar

Quark Henares

 

Director of Photography

Carlos Mauricio

 

Production Designer

Eero Yves S. Francisco

 

Editor

Lawrence S. Ang

 

Music

Alyana Cabral and Pan De Coco

 

Sound Designer

Corinne De San Jose

Notable Awards and Festivals

2022

Sundance Film Festival | Jury Award for Spirit of Innovation

Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (BAFICI) | Special Jury Mention

Center for Asian American Media Festival | Centerpiece Narrative Award Winner

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival | Special Jury Mention, Narrative Feature

 

Closing Film, Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness Program

Finalist for Main Competition, Melbourne International Film Festival

Finalist for Main Competition, Istanbul Film Festival

Nominated for Best Film, Screenplay and New Director

Opening film and Philippine premiere, Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival

 

ARKEOFILMS

Arkeofilms is an independent film production company based in Manila since 2000. They support filmmakers with a strong vision and produce strange and curious work that inspire discourse.

 

ANIMA

Manila-based independent entertainment studio ANIMA (formerly Globe Studios) is known to be creator-focused and bold in its content since 2016. ANIMA is strategically affiliated with the Globe Telecom Group,  the Philippines’ leading telecommunications provider. ANIMA is behind award winning titles ‘LSS Last Song Syndrome’ (Osaka Asian Film Festival), ‘Dead Kids’ (the first Filipino Netflix Original),  ‘Whether the Weather is Fine’ (Jury Prize Winner 2021 Locarno Film Festival, ‘OTJ: The Missing 8’ (Volpi Cup for Best Actor Award 2021 Venice Film Festival) and ‘Leonor Will Never Die’ (Sundance Film Festival 2022 Jury Award for Spirit of Innovation).

 

Synopsis

Leonor Reyes was once a major player in the Filipino film industry after creating a string of successful action films, but now her household struggles to pay the bills. When she reads an advertisement looking for screenplays, Leonor begins tinkering with an unfinished script about the quest of young, noble Ronwaldo, forced to avenge his brother’s murder at the hand of thugs. While her imagination provides some escape from reality, she goes all-in after an accident involving a television knocks her out, sends her into a coma, and transports her inside the incomplete movie. Now Leonor can play out her wildest dreams firsthand and discover the perfect ending to her story.

“With her feature film debut, writer-director Martika Ramirez Escobar expresses a joyous love for cinema through the film’s irreverent form and the wide-eyed, endearing lead performance from Sheila Francisco. Ramirez Escobar concocts a winning mixture of zany misadventures, awesome period re-creations, and self-reflective storytelling while grounding the story in the genuine emotions of a family suddenly torn apart.”

— Sundance Programmers

 

Notes from the Director

I was born and raised in Manila, a chaotic but charming city full of character and mystery. Not so long ago, a famous action star with no background in law and governance became the 13th President of the Philippines. I was six years old then and as a young girl, it felt natural for somebody famous to get elected. Today, decades later, after having two more “action star” presidents, I find myself questioning this absurd reality and am surprised by how easy it can be understood once I place it in parallel with our love for movies.

The epiphany is that we love fiction that it can blur our realities. I would spend days watching movies because it can take me to places that will never exist in my waking reality. This film therefore, which is about a writer-director who gets transported into a film she had written, is a concretization of cinema’s effect and our romantic notions of life that can only exist in fiction. Thus, if I had to make one film before jumping off a cliff, I would want it to be about my relationship with cinema — how it takes me places and keeps me sane.

– Martika Ramirez Escobar

 

 

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