Ang Manalagna (The Fortune Teller): My first screenplay
He who neglects learning in his youth loses the past and is dead for the future. -- Euripides
Premise: A person realises his future is no different than his past; it grows even darker, as he seeks absolution in the brink of a hopeless, remaining minute of his life.
Brief Synopsis
"Ang Manalagna" (The Fortune Teller) is a drama/thriller chronicling almost-a-decade the life of one Jake Lariosa, through a fortune teller's point of view. The year is 1999, when the world was going gaga over the Y2K hype and yet unperturbed by its consequences and plain oblivious to it: something far more shocking is eating Jake up -- a chagrin that has affected this Cebuano nursing student's normal perception of the world around him and his loved ones. A string of events collides into a sudden twist; while Jake suffers a metastatic, malignant brain tumor, it triggers a painful memory of his dark past -- as his life turns 180-degrees in the brink of death -- he seeks absolution, fraught by a questionable identity and his hopes of surviving the last shred of a shocking truth: his future was the past.
Cast of Characters:
JAKE LARIOSA, a Cebuano nursing student haunted by his dark past.
TONY LARIOSA, his father, a drunkard who is the center of Jake's conflict.
SUZANNE LARIOSA, his dysfunctional mother; she spends most of her time playing mahjong when critical family problems arise.
HANS, an effeminate 12-year old, precocious kid; he's a relative of the Lariosa's, whom Tony loosely calls his other "son."
LEA, Jake's nymphomaniac girlfriend who strongly denies over her sordid extra-curricular affairs.
PATRICK, Jake's next-door roommate; a straight-acting gay/voyeur neighbor who will stop nothing just to fulfill his fantasies with him.
JOSE MARIA DOMINGO, Jake's skeptical clinical instructor who is headstrong to fail him in his class.
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Profile:
Clee Albores-Villasor is a graphics designer for 7 years in Cebu City, Philippines. Deep inside him is an aspiring filmmaker wanting to escape from the daily grind and just go crazy with ideas using the powerful and effective storytelling tool that is called, film. He directed his first documentary, Ritmo sa Ritwal (Rhythm of the Ritual), for the recent 2007 Sinulog Video Documentary Competition last January, by the Sinulog Foundation and Cebu Filmmakers Society. Ritmo sa Ritwal became a Finalist for that competition. Ang Manalagna (The Fortune Teller) is his first full-length screenplay. If you are interested for a project collaboration and for other particulars about this, you can reach him through his email at cineclee@gmail.com.
