‘Genghis Khan’ returns to PH

Carlos Santamaria

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Missing for over six decades, the first internationally acclaimed Filipino movie returns home

All screenshots courtesy of the Film Development Council of the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Over six decades ago, a low-budget recreation of the life of legendary Mongolian warlord and emperor Genghis Khan became the first Filipino film to receive international recognition when it was shown at the Venice Film Festival in 1952.

But the actual film itself, along with three copies submitted by director and National Artist Manuel Conde to other festivals in Europe, never made made their way back to the Philippines.

Now the movie is not only back but fully restored and digitalized and was shown last night for the first time since its original local release in 1950.

The screening was attended by President Benigno Aquino III, who received the reels in a formal ceremony from Davide Pozzi, Director of L’Immagine Ritrovata, a film restoration laboratory based in Bologna, Italy.

Genghis Khan” is the first repatriated movie to be included in the National Film Archive of the Philippines, which hopes to bring make many more movies in the future so Filipinos may enjoy classic titles in their old splendor.

Jun Urbano, Conde’s son, said during the ceremony at SM Mall of Asia that his father would have been proud to have his film shown again after so many years and recalled how he transformed an old cemetery in Angono, Rizal, into the Mongolian steppe for the movie.

 

Conde died in 1985 and was designated National Artist Award for Film in 2009.

However, his appointment is still pending with the Supreme Court after former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo included the controversial names of director Carlo J. Caparas and government official Cecile Guidote-Alvarez. – Rappler.com

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