Dutch-Filipino film wins award at Copenhagen Film Festival

Copenhagen — The Dutch-Filipino feature film Lilet Never Happened starring Sandy Talag, John Arcilla and Marife Necesito, has won the prize for Best Youth Film 2013 at the Copenhagen International Film Festival.

The movie, which was entirely shot in Manila, is a character-driven story about Lilet, a young maladjusted Filipino-American street-girl.

International social worker Gloria desperately tries to save her from the sex industry, but she fails again and again. Though Lilet gets many opportunities to quit, she stubbornly chooses the hard way.

Lilet is bravely played by the young Filipina actress Sandy Talag. Talag is best known for her roles in Filipino movies Bahay kubo: A Pinoy mano po! and Seance.

Seasoned performer John Arcilla (Born Identity) is also part of the cast as well as Marife Necesito (Mammoth). Dutch actress Johanna Ter Steege (The Vanishing) played the role of Gloria, a foreign social worker who was trying to help Lilet out of prostitution.

According to director Jacco Groen, “I’m very happy to see that there are a lot of young people watching the film. Lilet Never Happened is made for the younger audience, you need to reach the new generation who will say enough is enough, we can not accept this anymore in a society that we call civilized. With this movie we really hope to raise awareness about the sad reality of child prostitutes not only in the Philippines, but all over the world.”

Lilet Never Happened has already been selected for more than 22 international film festivals in the past year, among them Warsaw International Film Festival (Poland), International Film Festival India, Moscow International Film Festival, Zlin Film Festival for Children and Youth (Czech Republic), Zanzibar International Film Festival (Tanzania) and the Kristiansand International Youth Film Festival (Norway), where it also won the prize for Best Youth film 2013. In the coming months, the film will also be shown in Switzerland, Australia, Armenia, Dubai and India.

Lilet Never Happened is expected to be screened in Manila this coming December.

The movie will be shown at The International Film Festival in Manhattan next month.