Vivamax stars proud to be working with an award-winning director
DIREK Jose Abdel Langit has a wide experience in film making as the assistant director of Joel Lamangan in so many movies for 20 years now, such as “Aishite Imasu”, “Blue Moon”, “Bahay Kubo” and various editions of the “Mano Po” franchise.
In 2016, he joined the Cinema One Digitals Filmfest and his entry, “Malinak Ya Labi”, about a forgotten crime in Pangasinan, got nominated as Cinema One best picture and won the best first feature film award from the Young Critics Circle.
He then got to be assistant director for many Vivamax movies, like “Fall Guy”, “Paupahan”, “Home Service”, “Girl Friday”, “Island of Desire” and many more. Now, he gets to direct his first full length original erotic film for Vivamax, “Haslers”.
It’s streaming starting December 8 and the story is about four young women who used to be best friends until they start living separate lives. The four main characters are played by Denise Esteban, Quinn Carillo, Hershie de Leon and Angelica Cervantes.
The friends reunite when one of them dies and seeing each other again opens up old wounds and uncover some dark secrets. We ask Direk Abdel how come it took so long before he made a follow up movie to his Cinema One project?
“Siguro kasi it’s not a commercial film and producers think na hindi ako pang-mainstream movie,” he says. “So I’m really thankful now that Viva has given me this break so I can prove na kaya ko ring gumawa ng commercial movie.”
How did he cast “Haslers”? “When they got me, kumpleto na ang script by Quinn Carillo and kumpleto na rin ang casting. The four girls are all members of the VMX Belles and managed by Len Carillo. I’m happy kasi magkakaibigan na talaga sila so that things made easier for all of us kasi mahirap ‘yung structure ng script ni Quinn. It has two timelines. The present and then the past na pasulpot-sulpot in flashbacks.”
We ask his stars how is it working with him as their director? “Direk Abdel was our assistant director in the movies we did with Direk Joel Lamangan,” says Quinn. “So we’re all happy we’re now working with him as our director at nakatutok talaga siya sa acting naming lahat. Maganda ang vision niya as a director at lahat kami nag-shine sa movie.”
“Ang maganda kay Direk Abdel, detailed ang instructions niya,” says Hershie. “Hindi ka na magda-doubt kung tama ba ‘yung ginagawa mo and I’m thankful that I got to work with him.”
“Direk Abdel is so approachable kaya relaxed lang kami sa set,” says Angelica. “He guides us really well, lalo na in our most difficult scenes, so I’m positive na we can all be proud of this movie and our performances.”
