Mexican Film ‘Leona’ to Screen Online at 17th Cinemalaya Film Festival

MANILA, Philippines — To celebrate Mexico’s National Film Day on Aug. 15, the Embassy of Mexico in the Philippines, in collaboration with the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and Cinemalaya Foundation Inc., is screening the Mexican film “Leona” as part of the 17^th edition of Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival.

Directed by Isaac Cherem, “Leona” follows Ariela, a young artist in Mexico City from a Syrian-Jewish family who is pressured into finding an appropriate partner. She develops feelings for a non-Jewish man named Iván, played by Christian Vazquez. This presents her with a dilemma as she weighs up the relationship against the approval of her family and community.

“Leona” premiered at the Morelia International Film Festival and was also featured in several international Jewish film festivals such as the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, Poland’s Jewish Motifs International Film Festival and the UK Jewish Film Festival.

The Mexican Embassy and its partners want “the public and lovers of good cinema to discover and understand the great complexity of Filipino and Mexican culture looking through the window of this film.”

“Leona” will be screened online and free of charge.

For further information, please visit the Embassy of Mexico in the Philippines’ official Facebook and Twitter pages, CCP and Cinemalaya’s social media pages and websites at https://culturalcenter.gov.ph and https://cinemalaya.org/.

This is a press release. Minor edits were made by the editor, but they were not involved in the creation of the content.