28/03/2011

A Cannes competition selection looks likely for Philippine director Brillante Mendoza’s new film Captured, starring Isabelle Huppert. After competing on the Croisette in 2008 with Service and winning Best Director in 2009 with The Execution of P [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the director could be back in the race for the Palme d’Or at the 64th Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22, 2011). The cast also includes Katherine Mulville, Marc Zanetta, Maria Isabel Lopez and Rustica Carpio, among others.

Heading Paris-based international seller Films Distribution’s line-up, Captured was shot in January-February, but the first cut is apparently completed. It is a majority French production piloted by Didier Costet for Swift Productions in co-production with Germany, the Philippines and the United Kingdom.

Co-written by Mendoza, Boots Agbayani Pastor and Patrick Bancarel, the script is based on a real-life event that occurred in 2001. It centres on Thérèse Bourgoin (Huppert), a French woman who works for a humanitarian organisation on Palawan Island in the Philippines. While she is transporting equipment to Puerto Princesa, she is kidnapped by mistake with a colleague by Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, who are fighting for Mindanao independence.

(Translated from French)