Director Kip Oebanda shared how his lead star, Marian Rivera, surprised him during the making of the Cinemalaya 2024 entry “Balota.”
In the suspense-thriller and political satire, Marian plays Emmy, a teacher responsible for safeguarding the ballot box containing the final copy of the election results amid the chaos erupting in their community.
“The range,” Kip told The STAR in an exclusive chat about what surprised him the most about directing Marian. “Grabe emotional range niya dito. This is a very tricky character in the sense that… ‘di ko rin na anticipate how heavy the emotional toll of the character would be on the actor. It’s not just her community that is at risk, it’s not just her, but also her entire family is at risk in the film. So to reach that space, it’s very taxing emotionally and requires a lot of range.”
He continued, “So dun ako pinaka-nagulat that she could pull off that range because parang for any actor, veteran or otherwise, to reach that, it’s not easy. But the one thing I was able to get from Marian is that if this is all about the family, she’s all about her family, she loves her family, she loves her kids, she loves her husband. So, feeling ko na kaya rin siya nakapunta dun is because of that love for her own family.”
Direk Kip first thought of Marian after seeing her in a “Himala” video that she shot during the pandemic under the direction of her husband, actor Dingdong Dantes, for a fund-raising activity.
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“Marian did a ‘Himala’ rendition and I was very moved by her rendition. I loved her ‘Himala’ and since I needed some action sequences here, I’ve seen her in ‘Kung Fu Divas’ so (I felt) kaya niya yung range na kailangan in the film.”
Though “Balota” was going to be co-produced by GMA Pictures and GMA Entertainment, he still wasn’t that optimistic of getting the “Kapuso Primetime Queen,” who has never done an indie or Cinemalaya film, to say yes to “Balota” because of her schedule.
“I didn’t think it was gonna happen until she read the script. She set up a meeting with me and then tinignan namin kung align ba kaming dalawa. Swak kami, yung style, yung perspective, yung politics namin same. May pinanggagalingan kaming middle ground na parang okay, we both want a better democracy for this country, a better electoral system. So after that conversation, she read the script one last time, and immediately she told her management na gawan ng paraan (to make it happen).”
Besides Marian, the director also made an interesting decision to cast social media personalities and comedians Sassa Gurl and Esnyr as actors.
“If you notice, the leads of the film are women and LGBTs. Think back to the last campaign, sino nagkarga ng campaigns on all political spectrum? Women and gays. So reflective siya of my parang desire to question the macho fascist culture of Philippine politics,” he explained.
“And in an interview of Sassa, political LGBT siya. So we really tried to design the LGBT characters in such a way na hindi pa nakikita on screen. Ibang klase. It’s close to Sassa Gurl, but hindi niya pini-play si Sassa Gurl,” he added.
Direk Kip asked Sassa for ideas on who could match the influencer’s energy if they’re thrown into a debate. Sassa was quick to suggest Esnyr, who was a scene stealer in his acting debut in “Shake, Rattle & Roll Extreme” last year.
Sassa Gurl and Esnyr, as well as comedienne Donna Cariaga, also carry the humor in “Balota” without trying to be funny. “Satire siya ng political system so kahit may humor siya, the humor isn’t coming from farce. They’re not actively making you laugh. We don’t need to push the comedy because what’s happening is already so funny, it’s so flawed that it’s hilarious,” direk Kip said.
Providing more insights into his film’s main characters, he said, “The design of these characters in ‘Balota’ is all of them are flawed, all of them make mistakes. And that’s part of reality because you don’t have perfect information, you don’t know who’s doing what because they’re ordinary folks, they’re not on the top level ng political system so limited lang din yung information mo. So naturally, you make mistakes. These characters make mistakes left and right so na-humanize sila.”
For the director, whose previous works are the Martial Law-themed “Liway” and the comedy-drama “Bar Boys,” “Balota” is an invitation to “reexamine our democracy because the problem is we only really talk about the elections during election time that it’s too late because by then, we’re so blinded by the spectacle, we’re so blinded by the horse race, like candidate A versus candidate B.
“When are we gonna take a step back and ask tama ba tong ginagawa natin, is the system still working, are our voices really getting represented?
“Personally, affected na affected ako nung 2022 elections. Ito ang sagot ko.”
Now on its 20th year, Cinemalaya runs until Aug. 11 at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Greenbelt, Trinoma, U.P. Town Center, and Market! Market! cinemas.
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