Brillante Mendoza's "Lola" competes in Venice Film Fest

CEBU, Philippines - Filipino director Brillante Mendoza’s latest movie entitled “Lola” was added as the second surprise film to the Venice Film Festival main competition slate.

This marks the second time that Mendoza is competing at a major festival this 2009. His last project, “Kinatay,” won him the best director at Cannes last May, beating the likes of widely-recognized Hollywood directors Quentin Tarantino and Ang Lee.

According to ScreenDaily, “Lola” was just shot this summer in over three months. It was still being finished up until the last minute. Earlier this year, Venice artistic director Marco Mueller told ScreenDaily that the second surprise film would arrive to the Lido only a day before it was to be screened.

The first surprise title to added to the line-up is Werner Herzog’s “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?.” It will now compete against Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans,” which is also in competition.

“Lola,” which means grandmother in Filipino, is the story of two elderly women who must face the consequences of a crime involving their grandsons, one of whom is the victim and the other the suspect. It is executive produced by Didier Costet’s Swift Productions with The Match Factory handling world sales.