A Rizal at the ‘MovieMov’ film fest; or about our guy in Rome named Benjamin

The universe loves plot twists.

I was supposed to sit down for lunch with Italian actors who have flown into a Manila gone gray everyday with apocalyptic rains, but things turned way, way cooler. Two Italian actresses later and I met Benjamin Vasquez Barcellano Jr., a Filipino actor who hails from Daet, Camarines Norte and has been based in Rome, Italy since 2000.

“Good morning po,” was his warm greeting.

Benjamin — who was one of the Rizals in Mike De Leon’s Bayaning Third World, and was Padre Burgos in Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s Jose Rizal — is featured in one of the short films at the third edition of the “MovieMov: Italian Cinema Now” film festival recently held at The Shang Cineplex.

The festival — which aims to promote and show to Asia, especially to the Philippines, what contemporary Italian cinema is about — screened a line-up of the most awarded Italian films of last year: La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Allacciate le Cinture (Fasten Your Seatbelts), Benur: Un Gladiatore in affitto (Benur: A Gladiator for Rent), Il Capitale Umano (The Human Capital), Il sud è niente (The South is Nothing), Smetto quando voglio (I Can Quit Whenever I Want), and Sotto una buona stella (Under a Good Star).

To show the link between Italian contemporary films with their counterpart in the past, a retrospective of the works of renowned Italian director Ettore Scola, who has contributed undying classics to Italian cinema, was also presented. The tribute to this master of Italian cinema featured three of his recently restored movies, including C’eravamo tanto amati (We All Love Each other So Much), his major international success.

According to Benjamin, the film that he’s a part of — A tutto Tondo directed by Andrea Bosca — was the fruit of Bosca’s visit to Smokey Mountain a “MovieMov” or two ago as part of a fundraising campaign for the inhabitants of the community.

He said, “(Bosca and his group) were touched by what they saw, of how people — particularly the children — were able to live in that kind of environment. Na nage-exist pala ’yung ganoong situation sa buhay.” Some of the visiting artists decided to make a documentary; others, a photo exhibition; Bosca opted for a short film, so he wrote a screenplay with Laura Luchetti and Gero Giglio, contacted a group of actors, and eventually met Benjamin.

The actor — then involved with PETA, Actors Workshop Foundation, and a soap opera on GMA 7, Kirara, Ano Ang Kulay ng Pag-ibig? directed by Gina Alajar (as Ka Emong) — was petitioned by his wife to make the big move to Rome in 2000.

You could just imagine the sense of alienation experienced by the transposed Pinoy.

“Ang hirap nung hindi ka nagsasalita ng Italian, ang hirap mag-adjust. ’Yung buhay dito hindi mo mai-apply doon,” described Benjamin, who was determined to pursue his craft even in a newer, much-stranger setting. He helped found Pyramid Entertainment Productions with fellow Pinoys, and they produce shows focused on searches (Batang Idol, Ginang Pilipinas). At the same time, the man managed to get work as a bit player and through hard work earned a regular spot in a TV series last year, a comedy-drama called Provaci Ancora Prof (Try it Again, Professor). Here he plays a Filipino migrant living in a garage with his wife and a son who gets blamed for the murder of his girlfriend. The plot doth thicken in the Professor’s world; the outcome, foggy and unexpected and sweetly titillating.

So do events for our guy Benjamin, a Filipino actor making quite an impression in Fellini’s Roma.

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This third edition of traveling Italian film festival “MovieMov: Italian Cinema Now in Manila” was organized by Playtown Roma and supported by the General Direction for Cinema of the Italian Ministry of Heritage and Culture and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Rome, in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in the Philippines, the Film Development Council and the Philippine Italian Association. MovieMov 2014 Manila was supported by Rustan’s, Shangri-La Plaza, Shang Cineplex, Bench, Elburg Shipmangement, Italian Maritime Academy and EDSA Shangri-La Manila as the official residence of the Italian delegation of actors and filmmakers.