Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay, which means "massacre" or "butchered" in Filipino and is the Philippines' entry for the Palme d'Or at the ongoing 2009 Cannes Film Festival, has it's press conference, photocall and premier today, May 17, 2009.

Those present in the press conference are the director Brillante Mendoza, actresses Mercedes Cabral and Maria Isabel Lopez, and actor Coco Martin, along with producers Didier Costet and Ferdinand Lapuz.

Kinatay is a story about a young criminology student and corrupt cops hacking a prostitute to pieces with blunt kitchen knives.

Here are the some images of the photocall:


From left to right: Producers Ferdinand Lapuz and Didier Costet, actress Maria Isabel Lopez, director Brillante Mendoza, actress Mercedes Cabral and actor Coco Martin attend the Kinatay.



After the photocall and press conference, Kinatay has its premier with the director, cast and producers attending. Famous director Quentin Tarantino also attended the premier.

Here are some of the images from the premier:



Director Brillante Mendoza has also been part of last year's Cannes with his indie film Serbis up for the in-Competition presentation. Mercedes Cabral, the lead actress for Kinatay, on the other hand, also has a minor role in the movie Thirst, South Korea's entry for Palme d'Or, which premiered on the 15th of May and this is her second time in Cannes. She was also the lead for Brillante's Serbis and was voted "Most Beautiful Actress" on an online poll for last year's Cannes.

To learn more about other Asian films on this year's Cannes, please go here: Asian films in the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

Photo credits: Cannes and fotoglif

i wish them all goodluck and hopefully made it on top. anyway, being one of the entry is already success. my advance congratulations to all behind this entry.

whoa! Quentin Tarantino attended the premier... He always makes it a point to patronize Filipino movies, so yay! One international celeb in the midst!

I've added 3 pics from the premier... I like the Filipiniana-inspired dress of Mercedes Cabral. I wonder who designed it... our Filipino celebs still exude grace and charisma, even if they're not wearing famous international designer labels!