Acclaimed veteran Filipino filmmaker Maryo J. De Los Reyes’ (BEDTIME STORIES) powerful, heartfelt family drama, MAGNIFICO was a huge hit at the 2003 Montreal World Film Festival.

It is the heartwarming story of a young boy named Magnifico whose amazing love, faith and courage shine through life’s moments of sadness and misfortune. His father, Gerry, thought his youngest son would grow up just like his older brother, Miong, an intelligent young man who is a scholar studying in Manila. Now that he’s nine years old, he is a disappointment to his father because contrary to his name, there is seemingly nothing magnificent about him. But Magnifico possesses a kindness in his heart of epic proportions.

When Miong loses his scholarship in Manila, his parents also lose all their hope in having a better life. Added to Miong’s failure, their youngest sibling Helen, has Cerebral Palsy and hasn’t spoken yet. It seems fate is playing a cruel prank on them when Gerry’s mother, Magda, is also diagnosed to have a terminal illness.

Fully aware of his family’s compounding problems, Magnifico’s sympathetic heart leads him to help out by planning the burial of his sick grandmother. In fulfilling his mission, he is bound to influence the lives of his townspeople and change the dim perspective of his family by proving that everything is possible if only one will see through the eyes of a child.

Official Selection, 2003 Montreal World Film Festival.

4 Stars, "Masterfully constructed..." - Wendy Banks, Now Magazine.

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