MARIFE Necesito, who landed an important role in “Mammoth,” which stars Academy and Golden Globe Award nominee, Michelle Williams, and acclaimed actor Gael Garcia Bernal, shared with us the link to the trailer of her international film (posted on the bottom of this blog). “Mammoth” is the first English-language film of Swedish writer-director Lukas Moodysson.
As we reported earlier, in “Mammoth,” Marife plays Gloria, a mother of two sons who leaves the Philippines to work as the nanny of the daughter (Sophie Nyweide) of a successful New York couple, played by Gael and Michelle. When Gael’s businessman character goes to Thailand, he realizes that he wants to change his life. This development sets off a dramatic chain of events that impact the characters of Marife, Michelle and Sophie.
Marife informed us that she filmed her scenes in New York, Sweden and the Philippines, specifically in Subic and Bataan. The trailer of the film prominently features Marife, including an emotional scene where she speaks in Tagalog to her two sons on the phone. The two sons are also shown on a beach in the Philippines, as shot by Lukas’ cinematographer, Marcel Zyskind, whose credits include Angelina Jolie’s “A Mighty Heart.”
Marife shared that she had to dub a few of her lines in a dubbing studio in Makati. She also told us via e-mail that in anticipation of the film’s release early next year, she is doing phone interviews with the Swedish press, as arranged by Memfis Film, one of the production companies involved in the making of “Mammoth.”
The Filipina actress added that Lukas is still making final editing work on “Mammoth.” Lukas is the highly praised filmmaker of films like “Lilja 4-ever,” “Show Me Love” and “Together.” Lukas, who made the final decision to pick Marife for the part, was hailed by his esteemed compatriot, the late Ingmar Bergman, as a “young master.”
Marife said she enjoyed working with Michelle, whose credits include Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” and Gael, the Mexican thespian who’s enjoying a sterling international career with such films as “Babel,” “The Motorcycle Diaries” and “Amores Perros.”
Here’s the link to the trailer.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
we are not glorifying her for being a housemaid…. this is a fact so just accept the movie as is…. there’s no pride nor ego being trampled here
January 14th, 2009 at 6:43 am
what’s wrong with being a housemaid? it’s a noble job. besides, the article is about the actress who got an important role in this movie.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:38 am
To Ren: But that’s reality. If many Filipinas work abroad as housemaids, it’s not their fault, but the government’s for failing to provide them with opportunities to make a decent living here in the Philippines. We should be proud of these Filipinas, since they’re trying their best, sacrificing even their time with their families, to give their children better lives. Would you rather see them begging in the streets?
January 6th, 2009 at 1:54 am
whats the problem with being a “housemaid”?..whatever you do you must be proud of it…
January 4th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Whats wrong for a filipina of being a housemaid? Ren must have forgotten that they are also part of the OFW who are the unmentioned heroes of the philippines. even some of this overseas housemaids are qualified teachers who are making our country proud of their professions, some of the employers of this housemaids are quite thankful for some of them are quite thankful to hire this maids for they are hiring highly qualified maids and thats what makes them great, doing simple things greatly.