Cannes 2009: Brillante Mendoza gets Baffling win for Best Director

Presenter Terry Gilliam had fun accepting the award for himself, but was correctly put into his place. Instead the award went to another critically panned film, this one from Cannes regular Brillante Mendoza. The filmmaker accepted the Best Mise en Scene award for Kinatay – a film I avoided like the plague. The story is about a criminology student, is recruited by his schoolmate, Abyong, to work as a part-time errand boy for a local syndicate that collects protection fees from various businesses in Manila. The easy money Peping earns is spent mostly on his girlfriend, Cecille, who’s also a student. Peping decides to marry her, but in order to do so he’ll need more money. Abyong contacts Peping to join a “special project” that pays more than normal…