One of the movies in competition at the seventh edition of the Sinag Maynila Film Festival is GB Sampedro’s Selda Tres, written by Eric Ramos and produced by Five 2 Seven Entertainment Productions.

The story of the motion picture was a result of a brainstorming session between director Sampedro and screenplay writer Ramos. It developed organically over a couple of months and the artistic collaborators tweaked it up to the end of the post-production process wherein they played around with the closing voice-over narration.

 “Selda Tres is a prison drama for only the first 30 minutes,” Ramos said. “It morphs into a courtroom drama in the second act, whereupon elements of romance and action bubble under the surface. Eventually, the romance and the action come to the fore and combust in the third act.”

“JM de Guzman plays the main character Julius, an unassuming single male who is wrongly jailed for arson just as he’s about to turn 40 years old,” said Ramos. “He becomes good friends with his three oddball cellmates. And when his well-off and well-connected elder half-brother Lando (Cesar Montano), helps him get free, he turns out to be a messenger at a law firm run by an all-female team of lawyers. He then convinces his office crush, Atty. Aika (Carla Abellana), to take on his ex-cellmates as pro bono clients.”

On De Guzman being cast as the male lead, Ramos said: “It was Direk GB who chose JM for the lead role, and I immediately agreed that he was an excellent choice.”

Excellent actor

De Guzman’s face turned a little red, flashed a shy kind of smile, when I told him that both the film’s writer and director believe that he is an excellent actor. “Talaga ba? (Really? Wow, coming from them, bigla along nahiya (it makes me shy).”

“I am thankful for the vote of confidence that direk GB and Sir Eric gave me. Their kind words make me want to do better, and of course, I gave my best, I don’t want them to be disappointed knowing the fact that they handpicked me to portray Julius.”

“I don’t judge my characters,” said De Guzman. “I always make it a point that when I wear their shoes, I respect their point of views in life. I am that kind of actor who makes a history for my role. I analyze my character, his thoughts, sense of judgment, motivation as to why he does a certain thing. His emotions, I make it a point to put in his truth, not my truth as JM.”

De Guzman is one of the few actors who can play lead, support and even the antagonist. How he does that, he said: “It takes a lot of research and study of course. Whether I play lead, support, kontrabida, what I put in the given role is always sincerity, vulnerability and authenticity. All I want, whether he is good or bad, is that people see the character and not JM.”

How does he find the authentic self of the characters? “By feeling him, dito sa puso (pointed at his chest),” answered De Guzman. “You know when I am into the heart of my character, I speak, laugh, cry, eat, get all his feels, eccentricities, all of him, I give him passion and soul.”

His co-actors, particularly Montano and Abellana, were two of the major inspirations for De Guzman. On Montano, the actor said: “He is my idol, si Kuya Buboy. I have always looked up to him. His body of work, most impressive especially Jose Rizal, Muro Ami and Bagong Buwan. When we were shooting this movie, I will not deny the fact that I was starstruck. He gives his A-game to his role as Lando. And just by observing him, how he conducts himself during the shoot, how he gives the right amount of emotional truth to Lando, wow! Kinabahan, (he made me nervous) but at the same time, I was excited and pumped to do scenes with him kasi ang galing niya talaga (because he was amazing).”

With Carla, JM said: “At first, I thought she was a snob. But as the shooting progressed, she was fun to work with because you know, acting is always reacting, so with her I know that we are on the same page when we do our scenes. And yes, not only is she physically beautiful, she was and is truly emotionally intelligent. Marami nga ang natutuwa (many are happy) that we share great screen chemistry.”

Of course, no conversation with De Guzman will be complete with asking about Donnalyn Bartolome, his beloved.

When I asked him if she is the one, De Guzman flashed his sweetest smile, eyes twinkling and held that man so in love kind of expression for a second or two, and exclaimed: “Yes!”

Also, in Selda Tres are Aaron Villaflor, Kier Legaspi, Victor Neri, Isay Alvarez, Perla Bautista, Jeffrey Tam, Tanjo Villoso and Johnny Revilla.

Gala screening of Selda Tres is on 26 September, Friday, 7 p.m. at Gateway Cinema 18.

Sinag Maynila 2025 will be held on 24-30 September in Gateway 2, Trinoma, SM Mall of Asia and Fairview, Robinsons Manila and Antipolo, and Market-Market cinemas.