On TV, Lourna Jane Pujeda Reyes, or simply LJ Reyes, is effective in playing contra vida roles. In theater, she earned praises for her stage debut in Tanghalang Pilipino’s Juego de Peligro. In film, she recently won her first international acting recognition after earning raves locally.
It seems that no matter which medium Reyes decides to dip her hands into, she is bound to succeed. The GMA Starstruck alumna started acting in different programs for her home network immediately after her runner-up finish in the talent search in 2004. It took her six years to win a Best Supporting Actress trophy for her role in Ian Loreños’ Cinemalaya full-length film The Leaving. It was followed by more praises for her acting opposite JM de Guzman in the 2012 Cinemalaya feature Intoy Syokoy ng Kalye Marino directed by Lem Lorca and based on Eros Atalia’s novel and in Michael Tuviera’s award-winning 2014 Cinemalaya film The Janitor.
As if these are still not enough, Reyes recently got her first international acting recognition after bagging the Best Actress trophy at the 13th Pacific Meridian International Film Festival for director Jun Lana’s three-character psycho-political thriller Anino sa Likod ng Buwan (Shadow Behind the Moon). The jury cited Reyes for her “brave and fearless performance in a very complex character that has enabled the director to fulfill a most ambitious vision.”
Apart from Reyes’ victory, the new independent feature also brought home three more awards – the NETPAC Jury Best Asian Film, the FIPRESCI International Critics Award, and the Best Director Award for Lana for “the ambition he had to make the film in one shot, in which he has succeeded, and the exceptional direction of the actors in the film which explores challenging issues that are both specific to his country and universal to the world we live now.”
Reyes graced the film’s world premiere at the 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic but she failed to personally receive her trophy in Vladivostok, Russia due to a prior commitment. The film’s four-award achievement is a first in the history of the festival.
With the armed conflict between the government forces and the communist rebels at the Marag Valley – regarded as a “No Man’s Land” in the early nineties – as its backdrop, the film follows three individuals trying to resolve a difficult situation. Emma (Reyes) and her husband Nardo (Anthony Falcon) befriend Joel (Luis Alandy), a soldier tasked with camp security. The couple spends time playing cards with the military man on the night of a lunar eclipse. The apparent love triangle seems to engage in a harmless discussion inside a shack surrounded by woods.
Set at a time when several “internal refugees” were caught in the line of fire as they try to survive the military’s attempts to purge the communist group, the film asks where true allegiances of the characters lie. Questions regarding their mutual trust and friendship arise as unspoken secrets and lies begin to unravel with the dawn of a new day gradually approaching.
The story required Reyes to undress on camera in an uninterrupted love scene with Alandy, even surpassing her role as a prostitute in Intoy Syokoy. Although she has done sexy roles in the past, the role is something new to her. She just entrusted everything to her director. “Sobrang ganda ng script. ‘Yun lang talaga ang masasabi ko,” she recounted after reading the screenplay.
Reyes revealed they rehearsed for several days in an empty studio. “The rehearsals are very tiring pero worth it. After nang mag-shoot na. parang kulang pa pala ‘yung rehearsals namin.” The film, which will have its Philippine premiere at the QCinema International Film Festival 2015 this week, makes use of the tight narration, the interaction among the characters, and the camera work to show their isolation and manipulate their entrapment in these circumstances.
The film attempted to shoot the narrative in a single, almost two-hour take, with the camera tracking the protagonists as they move in and around the shack and framing them in tight shots that mirror the isolation or the tough conditions they are in – akin to being trapped in a box. It hooks the audience to find out who among the three characters escape the situation unscathed.
Anino sa Likod ng Buwan premieres at 9 p.m. today at Ayala Trinoma Cinemas as part of the QCinema International Film Festival 2015. It will also be shown 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Robinsons Galleria and on Oct. 25, 1 p.m. at Gateway Cineplex.