Santa Santita

Santa Santita, or Magdalena, The Unholy Saint, is a 2004 Filipino film starring Angelica Panganiban and Jericho Rosales, directed by Laurice Guillen. The film follows Malen, the daughter of an intercessor, her love affair with a hustler and gigolo, and her confrontation of the evil within her life. Based on a script by Jerry Gracio, the film was picked up by Guillen in 2000 but did not start production because an appropriate actress for Malen could not be found. After picking Panganiban, Guillen began work, and the eventual film was released on November 17, 2004, in the Philippines and March 11, 2005, internationally. Receiving good reviews from Variety and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Santa Santita was one of only two films to be rated as Grade A by the Cinema Evaluation Board of the Philippines, and represented the Philippines at the Asiaticafilmediale festival in Italy and the Bangkok International Film Festival.

Initially met with mistrust by her colleagues, one of whom exclaims that She is defiling prayer, Malen heals a child with a hole in its heart through her prayers, despite not even praying seriously. This meets with additional hostility, both from the other intercessors and the clergy, and when Malen dreams of having stigmata, she is forced to confront the problems with her own life, something which comes to a climax when she is asked to bring Mikes dead son back to life. A side plot involves Father Tony Johnny Delgado, an alcoholic priest who lives with Mike. Initially his drinking partner, Mike begins to taunt the priest about his failures as the film goes on. At the end of the film, Mike is sent to prison for killing a man after a traffic accident, while Tonys interactions with Malen convince him that he is addicted to alcohol, prompting him to return to his parish and continue serving as a priest.The script was written by Jerry Gracio, influenced by the poem The Hound of Heaven, and won first prize at the scriptwriting competition hosted by the Film Development Council of the Philippines in 2000. This attracted the attention of Laurice Guillen, who bought the script the first time in her career that she had done so and signed on to direct the eventual film. The script was brought to Star Cinema, who became interested in producing it, but production stalled due to difficulties finding an appropriate actress to play Malen. Guillen stated that Since she was a Magdalene, she had to be sexy but she also had to be much more than that....I was shown many sexy actresses, some of them name stars, but I couldnt find my SantaSantita. I felt that the role should go to someone relatively new, who had no fixed image, so that there would be no expectations. An additional problem was over the religious content of the film, which met with controversy. Guillen eventually found Angelica Panganiban to play Malen, and after five years without production, work

Source: Wikipedia