Cannes Winner THE BEGUILED Opens September 6 Exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas

Back in May, Sofia Coppola was crowned best director by the jury at the 70th International Cannes Film Festival for her drama-thriller, "The Beguiled". It’s the first time in 56 years that a woman has taken the top honor. Now, Manila audiences can finally watch Coppola's gem as "The Beguiled" opens exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (specifically at Greenbelt 1 and Trinoma) starting tomorrow, September 6, 2017. You can also catch our review of the film here.

Adapted from the novel by Thomas Cullinan named "A Painted Devil", "The Beguiled" is a sexually charged tale that unfolds during the Civil War, at a Southern girls’ boarding school. Its sheltered young women take in an injured enemy soldier (Colin Farrell). As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events.

Intrigued by the story of the 1971 film The Beguiled, directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, Coppola wanted to explore the theme of women isolated during the Civil War. In writing the screenplay adaptation, she went back to the book to tell the story from the female characters’ perspective for her film. “So 'The Beguiled' would be a reinterpretation,” she says, “the premise is loaded because power dynamics between men and women are universal. There’s always a mystery between men and women.” The women’s wartime lives at the school are, as the story begins, heavily ritualized. Elle Fanning notes, “They get up, they work in the garden at a certain time. There’s prayer, playing music, French lessons, dinner and bedtime. Until, everything gets shaken up; they take in the wounded soldier, and selfishness sets in.”

"The Beguiled" is distributed in the Philippines by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.