Keka receives praises at Berlin’s Asian Hotshots Fest

Works of Filipino filmmakers became the focus of the first Asian Hotshots Festival for Film and Video Art in Berlin, with the European premiere of Quark Henares’ black comedy, Keka, as the opening film of the festival last month.

Forty-two Philippine short and feature films were shown throughout the festival, aside from other entries coming from the Asia-Pacific region.

Quark informs the Berlin Asian Hotshots Film Festival is a film and video art festival dedicated to Asian filmmakers. Keka was premiered on the opening night last Jan. 17 at the Babylon Theater. The festival ran until Jan. 22.

 “Apparently Germans are into Asian cinema and what the three lovely organizers — Laura Gerber, Tina Lange and Maria Romer — wanted to do was promote Asian cinema that wasn’t just Korean, Chinese or Japanese,” Quark allows. “Lucky for us that the featured country was the Philippines.”

Keka is a black comedy about a girl (named Francesca or “Keka”) who vows revenge upon the frat boys who kill her boyfriend and get away with it. Katya Santos plays the title role, with Wendell Ramos, Ryan Eigenmann, Vhong Navarro, Luis Alandy, Bobby Andrews, Andrea del Rosario, Jordan Herrera, JC Parker, TJ Trinidad and Tuesday Vargas. Quark makes a cameo in the film as the director of the cheesy soap opera that stars Ryan’s character, Bobby.

Keka is the second feature film of the 27-year-old Quark, who avoids nudity in his movie. The said film was also shown in the 2004 New York Asian American International Film Festival. He made his commercial directorial debut with Gamitan.

“Keka is a movie I wanted to make since I was in high school,” said Quark in the open forum following the screening of the black comedy.

Katya, before starring in Keka, learned martial arts — jujitsu, wushu and kickboxing — for her role since she refused to have double. She also underwent various liposuction procedures under Dr. Vicki Belo, Quark’s famous cosmetic surgeon mother.

Quark earned raves and acclaim in Berlin for Keka. The week-long festival was attended by more than 30 directors from different parts of Asia — India, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand. He didn’t expect Keka to get accepted in the Berlin Asian Hotshots Film Festival since it was neither an old film nor a new film. In fact, Keka was shown in 2003 yet.

 “I was initially shocked than thrilled that the film was chosen as the opening for the festival,” Quark shares. “The scary thing about opening night is that usually half the people leave after the ceremonies, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that everyone stayed. I was also fearful at first because the audience was just really quiet and they weren’t even paying attention to the jokes. After a while though, they really got into it and started clapping at the weirdest moments.”

Quark attributes the audience’s appreciation of his film to the Germans’ love of camp, but was genuinely touched by their reaction. “Also, the Q & A afterwards was really fun,” he grants. “Some people said they wanted to go to the country after watching the movie because it seemed like such a nice country. I said to myself, ‘Wait, this film is about a faulty legal system, corruption, murder and fraternities, and they want to visit the Philippines? That’s great!’ I never got that response before.”

A lot of people also came up to him to inquire about the soundtrack of the film that features Philippine local alternative music from bands like Sugarfree, Narda and Ciudad. “They asked quite a lot of questions and were really interested in learning about the film industry here and other Filipino films,” Quark offers. “After the screening Jorg Buttgereit, the director of the cult classic, Nekromantik (one of the most bootlegged films in history) had a chat with me and bought me a beer.”

During the opening program, Philippine Ambassador to Germany Delia Domingo-Albert welcomed some 500 guests and commended the pioneering efforts of the festival organizers. She is pleased with today’s global audience acceptance of Filipino films in international film festivals because of digital technology.

“The festival can be a catalyst in enhancing friendship and understanding among Asian filmmakers and their German counterparts, as well as the German and international audiences here in Berlin,” said Ambassador Albert in her opening night speech.

Other Filipino filmmakers who graced the event were Kidlat Tahimik, Nick de Ocampo, Khavn dela Cruz and John Torres.

Quark is thankful to the support of Ambassador Albert to the film community. “It’s her main goal to promote Philippine culture and the best way to do that is to promote our films,” says Quark of the ambassador. “The day after the premiere, she invited all of us to lunch in her lovely home, where she keeps a dirty ice cream cart as her centerpiece. She treated the German guests to sinigang, Wurst and adobo, while sharing her opinions on Philippine-German relations and the new Philippine cinema.”

Aside from Keka, the festival screened other Filipino classic films: Nunal sa Tubig and Himala; films from the ’80s independent movement (Oliver by Nick de Ocampo); a retrospective on the great Kidlat Tahimik (Mababangong Bangungot, Turumba); and the new digital cinema (Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Squatterpunk, Todo Todo Teros).

Quark made his feature film debut with the sexy romance thriller, Gamitan, in 2002. He directed other films like the twinbill suspense thriller, ’Wag Kang Lilingon (with its Uyayi episode) and the fantasy flick, Super Noypi, an official entry in the 2006 Metro Manila Film Festival. He is now working on his first digital film, Rakenrol.