15th New York Asian Film Festival

Jun 22 - Jul 9, 2016

FilmsGuestsSchedule & Tickets

Photo: Arkeofilms

New York Premiere

Apocalypse Child

Fully embracing the unbearable lightness of surfing and idling his days away on the sun-drenched beaches of Baler (the heart of the Philippines' surf culture, where Apocalypse Now was shot), Ford (Sid Lucero) enjoys an almost cloudless existence and coasts along in the arms of his pretty runaway girlfriend (Annicka Dolonius), unburdened by the dustups of modern existence, or any deeper meaning for that matter. But there is a restlessness about him that is about to unravel. Named after Francis Ford Coppola, the man may or may not be the illegitimate son of the Hollywood director. As he fumbles for answers and reconnects with an old friend, an anxious love triangle—or rather love hexagon—forms and flounders, against a background of seas and skies so blue that they emblazon the screen. Mario Cornejo's relationship drama is dazzling, not least when its protagonists ride the waves or into each other, or tells of souls opened up to raw experience, flirting and fighting in flurries of razor-sharp dialogue reminiscent of the golden age of 1990s American indie cinema.

Director: Mario Cornejo
Cast: Ana Abad Santos, R.K. Bagatsing, Annicka Dolonius, Gwen Zamora, Sid Lucero
Languages: Filipino & English with English subtitles
2015; 95 min.; DCP

SCHEDULE:

Thursday June 23, 6:15pm
Film Society of Lincoln Center

Q&A with Sid Lucero, Annicka Dolonius

Sid Lucero

While John Lloyd Cruz is the leading man of Philippines' mainstream cinema, Sid Lucero is the leading man of the country's thriving independent film scene. Born Timothy Mark Pimentel Eigenmann, his stage name comes from the role played by his father Mark Gil in Mike De Leon's Filipino classic Batch '81. Since his first feature in 2006, Adolfo Alix Jr.'s Donsol, Lucero has won multiple awards awards, including Best Actor at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for his role as an imprisoned child-murderer in Ellen Ramos and Paolo Villaluna's Selda. Directors he has worked with include Raya Martin (Independencia), Brillante Mendoza (Captive) and Lav Diaz (Norte, the End of History, A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery) in films that have defined the image of Philippines' cinema at Berlin, Cannes, Venice and other international film festivals. With Mario Cornejo's Apocalypse Child, and the role of man-child surfer Ford, Lucero has perhaps found his career-defining role. He can next be seen as a priest tracking down a serial killer in Martin's Smaller and Smaller Circles.

Annicka Dolonius

"Born in Singapore, raised in Malaysia, and educated in Switzerland, half-Swedish Annicka Dolonius is one of Philippine cinema's most international citizens. Five years after playing a high-school student in Auraeus Solito's 1980s-set Philippine Science, she entered the film industry like a whirlwind with another Cinemalaya competition entry, Marietta Jamora's 2012 What Isn't There. Before casting began, Jamora told the festival organizing committee who were seed-funding it, \"I just want to discover somebody and hope she looks like a young Winona Ryder.\" She got that and more in Dolonius, who played the carefree, music-loving Enid del Mundo who sweeps the virginal protagonist off his feet. After a series of bit parts in commercial films and television, she returned to leading roles last year in Jim Libiran's high school orgy drama Ninja Party and Mario Cornejo's Apocalypse Child, for which she won her very first acting award at the Quezon City International Film Festival (QCinema)."