MANILA, Philippines ? Leader of the new Philippine cinema.

That was how the 66th Venice International Film Festival website described Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza.

Less than four months after winning the Best Director prize in Cannes, Mendoza unveiled his latest digital work, ?Lola,? which was chosen as a ?surprise entry? in Venice.

While his previous films ?Serbis? and ?Kinatay? divided critics in Cannes and elsewhere in the world, ?Lola? was generally greeted with good reviews in the world?s oldest festival.

Reuters reported that ?critics in Venice praised ?Lola?? ? adding that since it was ?shot like a documentary ... [it left] the audience wondering ... whether its scenes are from real life.?

Incontention.com described it as ?an earnest, compassionate study of forgiveness and redemption ... an unadorned drama that requires, but ultimately rewards,? viewers? patience.

Lee Marshall of Screen Daily says ?Lola? is Mendoza?s ?most humane, ethically resonant film ... a study of social and moral adaptation.?

Barely a week before flying to Italy, Mendoza screened ?Kinatay? for Philippine Daily Inquirer employees.

After the screening, he sat down with the Inquirer Entertainment staff to talk about Third World aesthetics as seen in the First World?s biggest film festivals.

The timing of the interview proved propitious.

A day after arriving from Italy early this week, the peripatetic Mendoza (always rushing, always shuttling) was on the road again ? this time, headed to Sao Paolo, Brazil, for a retrospective of his movies at the Indie 2009 World Film Festival.

?Lola? is slated for a theatrical run in Manila beginning September 23.

How long was the script of ?Kinatay??

20 pages, with 43 sequences. A regular script would have about 100 sequences. But since my French producer (Didier Costet) knew how I worked, he wasn?t bothered by the slim script. (Lead actor and co-producer) Coco Martin initially thought ?nothing was happening? in the script.

Before the start of the shoot, I didn?t know yet how I would orchestrate everything. Basta everything was in my mind.

What was clear to me was that I wanted the viewers to feel disturbed, afraid and unsafe after watching the movie.

Why was that your goal?

Because that?s reality. We just refuse to see it. We?re too blinded by a false sense of security.

Was it intentional to make the scenes long?

Yes, because I?m presenting life as we experience it. It?s almost like a documentary. I made it a point that, in the daytime scenes, everything was sunny and bright. But at night, there?s danger.

Was the lighting intentional as well?

Yes, the second part was intentionally dark and the first part was intentionally colorful.

Didn?t you worry that the audience might get turned off by the dark scenes?

I actually had a ride-through in the van. I brought a camera with me and drove around Manila. During the test run, nothing could be seen, but you could hear all sorts of sounds.

That made it more frightening. You can?t see anything, but you can hear all those awful sounds.

I knew sound would play an important role in ?Kinatay.? I want the audience to imagine the worst ... based on what they could hear alone.

At first, (actor) John Regala was punching the seat cushion in the van. It sounded fake. So I put raw pig?s thigh on the seat so it would sound as if he was hitting human flesh.

You could barely see blood in the chop-chop scenes ...

I had two shots of the mutilated body, but at the last minute, I removed them.

If you don?t have discipline as filmmaker, you may get tempted to go overboard. But that?s exactly what I wanted to avoid: the Hollywood mentality of showing everything.

Is ?Kinatay? your commentary on massacre movies?

Chop-chop murders (the mutilation of people) have been happening since the 1960s ? like the Lucila Lalu case. It happens. In fact, while we were shooting, a dismembered arm was found in Manila.

It has been tackled in movies in the past, but I just wanted to present it with a different point of view.

How do you account for the extreme reactions sparked by ?Kinatay?? Quentin Tarantino loves it; Roger Ebert hates it.

It all depends on how you will take in the film. It depends on what you want to see.

What was your initial reaction when you read the reviews of ?Kinatay??

I read them, but bad reviews are no big deal to me. Actually, when I finally saw the finished film for the first time, I felt a little confidence about my work. I felt like a real filmmaker. (Laughs)

Is it true that you doubted yourself after the bad reviews of ?Serbis? in last year?s Cannes?

In everything, I had doubts. I was always unsure of myself.

During the post-production of ?Kinatay,? the American woman who was doing the subtitles gave up. She found it hard to watch. Masakit daw sa dibdib [It?s heavy on the chest].

Our assistant producer in Paris told me that she?s now scared of riding vans. Their strong reactions made me realize that I was able to achieve what I wanted.

Do you now know why gangs chop up their victims?

To show their power. Their victims are dehumanized, reduced to a commodity that can be easily disposed.

How did you develop your aesthetics?

I think I developed it during my work as production designer. My edge was that I got to work with filmmakers like Peque Gallaga, Celso Ad. Castillo, Chito Roño, Tata Esteban.

When I moved to the advertising world, I also got to work with top directors, local and foreign. I got to observe how they worked and, at the same time, I got to figure out how to create a more effective style.

But didn?t you also develop your style with the help of your staff? You work with almost the same crew in all your films.

My team knows how I work. I work quickly, but it?s all rooted in the film?s concept. From the start, they know the concept by heart.

Why are you in a hurry? In four years, you?ve made seven award-winning films.

Well, I rushed ?Lola? because I was trying to capture the rainy season. I wanted to show flooded Malabon. I wanted the mood to be drab, dreary, gloomy. So I couldn?t do this film in the summer.

There?s no sex and violence in ?Lola??

For a change! (Laughs) It?s a story of unconditional love. It shows the Filipinos? strong family ties. That we draw strength from our families.

What was it like working with veteran actresses Anita Linda and Rustica Carpio?

They?re professionals. You can really see how passionate they feel about acting. It?s in their blood.

I first worked with Ms. Anita as production designer in ?Takaw Tukso? (in 1986). It?s my first time to direct Ms. Rustica who I only know through her movies with Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal.

At the start of the shoot, I told them that I had a different style of working.

At first, I was worried about Ms. Anita. She?s used to the mainstream style. Fortunately, she found my approach refreshing. She also didn?t want to be limited when she?s acting.

I wanted to give them as much freedom as possible.

As shown in your CNN interview, your films have been pirated.

I can?t do anything about that. (Laughs)

I noticed that the pirates keep changing the cover of ?Serbis? every day. On the first day, it was Coco Martin. Second day, Mercedes Cabral. Third day, Gina Pareño.

What?s your take on piracy?

It has become part of our culture. I just wish that when they buy pirated discs, it?s because they really want to watch my films.

What?s your response to critics who say that your films exploit poverty?

My stories are based on real life ... But I don?t only show our problems. In ?Lola,? I tried to show the resilience of the Filipino family.

Is the Filipino audience ready for indie films?

There are a lot of independent filmmakers, but most Filipinos don?t get to watch our films. They would still rather watch mainstream movies.

I find it ironic that even though our films are about poverty, most of our viewers are still from the economic elite, the educated class.

I just hope that from this small audience, we would be able to build and generate a bigger audience.

Are there offers from Hollywood and local mainstream producers like Star Cinema?

I?ve told them that I?d only do films with them on my own terms?

But you?ve worked with Seiko and Viva?

Robbie Tan didn?t meddle when I made ?Foster Child? for Seiko. His only comment was that he found the scene showing Jiro Manio cooking noodles far too long.

He felt as if it ran for three hours. Sige (Alright), I told him, I?d make it two hours.