'Quezon' brings a part of history home

When the chandeliers of The Manila Hotel's Centennial Hall lit up on Oct. 7, the room didn't just hold movie stars - it had a piece of history.

- By ANNALYN S. JUSAY

DIRECTOR Jerrold Tarrog (middle) and his all-star cast led by Jericho Rosales during the 'Quezon' media conference at Manila Hotel

The country's oldest luxury hotel, where many of the nation's leaders once gathered, became the venue for the media conference of TBA Studios' most ambitious project yet: the movie "Quezon."

Considered one of the "most anticipated" Filipino films of 2025, Quezon is directed by Jerrold Tarog, the award-winning filmmaker behind "Heneral Luna" and "Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral."

The film not only revisits the years after the Philippine Revolution during the American occupation but also officially closes TBA's decade-long Bayaniverse trilogy, which redefined how Filipino heroes are told on screen.

The movie follows Quezon's relentless pursuit of independence and his power play with rivals such as Leonard Wood, Sergio Osmeña, Joven Hernando, and Emilio Aguinaldo, whom he faced in the 1935 presidential elections.

The director remarked that the film paints Quezon not as a saint, but as a man shaped by ambition and charm, navigating a system that feels all too familiar today.

"There are parallelisms in the movie and what's happening now. Nothing has really changed, it's been like this for a long time. And it's possible that Quezon's style of politics is one of the biggest roots of that," Tarog revealed in "Quezon: The Story Behind The Film."