In the story, she plays the daughter of her real life mom, Jaclyn Jose. Their family owns a sari-sari store but they are selling illegal drugs on the side. For this, Jaclyn is arrested and the movie follows their family’s travails after some cops try to extort money from them after she’s imprisoned. Her family is forced to sell everything so they can get the money needed to buy back her freedom.
Direk Mendoza says the story is based on the true story of a friend who had a similar experience with corrupt cops and it happened four years ago. Isn’t he worried that our police force might complain because of this? “They did complain before in 2009 when I did my film, ‘Kinatay’, that won me the Cannes Filmfest best director award,” he says. “It’s about summary executions done by the police and some of them tried to stop it. But we all know the things I portray in my movies really happen and some cops even allowed me to shoot some scenes of ‘Ma Rosa’ inside their police station. Several real cops also appeared in the movie.
This film is actually doing a great service to our country in exposing corruption among rogue cops. I hope that with a new president coming in, things will change for the better in our country. That’s my goal in doing this kind of movies that tackles social issues. I meant them to be eye openers about what’s really happening in our country, especially to the poor.”
