PH’S SUNDANCE 2023 ENTRY ‘IN MY MOTHER’S SKIN’ TO LAUNCH ON PRIME VIDEO

Prime Video announced recently that it has acquired the worldwide rights to “In My Mother’s Skin,” written and directed by Kenneth Dagatan (“Ma”). The horror fairy tale, which made its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival’s Midnight Section, tells the story of how a young girl’s duty to protect her dying mother is complicated by her misplaced trust in a beguiling, flesh-eating fairy.

The film stars Beauty Gonzalez, Felicity Kyle Napuli, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, James Mavie Estrella and Angeli Bayani.

“In My Mother’s Skin” is the only non-English language film in the Midnight Section this year, and will launch on Prime Video in multiple countries by the end of 2023.

Set in the Philippines at the end of World War II, “In My Mother’s Skin” follows the story of Tala, the 14-year-old daughter of a textile merchant who lives in a war-worn colonial house with her sickly mother Ligaya and younger brother Bayani.

When Tala’s father mysteriously leaves once more to barter for his family’s freedom with the Japanese, they find themselves alone in their isolated forest mansion, awaiting his return. With Ligaya’s condition rapidly deteriorating, Tala seeks out a mysterious fairy who has promised to protect her.

Happy to oblige, the fairy gives Tala a magical insect to cure her dying mother. This initially provides Ligaya with relief, but later leads to disastrous consequences that force Tala to make a distressing decision.

Anna Kendrick drama ‘Alice, Darling’ now in Ayala Malls Cinemas Known for her roles in “Pitch Perfect” and “Trolls,” Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick stars as a woman pushed to the breaking point by her psychologically abusive boyfriend in “Alice, Darling,” which opened in Ayala Malls Cinemas last Wednesday.

“Alice, Darling” is a taut thriller about coercion and control. It examines the power of deeply rooted female friendships that ultimately lead to empowerment. When the audience first encounters Alice (Kendrick), she is fully in denial about her fraught relationship with her boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick) and how damaging it is.

Kendrick explains, “At first, Alice doesn’t really know who she is at all. She was a really bizarre character to play because the whole point is that she’s sort of lost herself, and that everything in her focus, all her energy, is going toward being small and flexible [as a way] to manage her partner’s potential reactivity. And the sense that if she’s just a bit better, if she is just perfect, everything will be OK.

“That mindset slowly creeps in, and—before she knows it—she doesn’t recognize herself anymore. Only when she is with her close friends, Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku), does Alice have a little more room to breathe.

“It’s interesting because she’s resistant to that at first—if she fully recognizes herself, then returns to her partner, she will be in serious trouble—and her carefully constructed, self-sabotaging world will come apart.”