Festival Note
A princess seeks refuge in a convent to escape an arranged marriage. A young prince tries to make sense of his station. A giant bird mysteriously appears after centuries of absence. Masla A Papanok (Ave) mixes history, myth, memory and magic to reimagine the Spanish colonial period in Mindanao like never before.
Born in 1976, in Cotabato, Southern Philippines, Gutierrez Mangansakan II is a keen observer of Southeast Asian cinema and one of the leading figures of the Regional Cinema New Wave movement in the Philippines. He has produced, written, and directed prize winning films such as “Limbunan” (The Bridal Quarter) which closed the Venice Critics Week section in 2010, “Cartas de la Soledad” (Letters of Solitude, 2011), “Qiyamah” (The Reckoning, 2012), “Daughters of the Three-Tailed Banner” (2015), and “Forbidden Memory” (2016).