Groen, who has spent many years filming documentaries in the Philippines, hopes to make a political statement on a social problem that victimizes children not only in the Philippines but in most third world countries.

 

“The problem with child prostitution is there is an enormous imbalance between an adult and a child which is automatically wrong in my eyes because an adult is always overpowering the child. And many of those adults don't see the effects of that on the children,” Groen told ABS-CBN Europe.

 

Using mainly Tagalog as the movie’s language, “Lilet Never Happened” showed the harsh realities of a child prostitute's life and their helplessness in a corrupt and greedy society. It also tackled the challenges faced by social workers who persevere to help them out of their situation.

 

Upcoming child actress Sandy Talag was chosen to play the lead role. Despite this being her first starring role, Talag embraced the character of Lilet immediately and felt the difficulties that she had encountered.

 

“The most challenging part for me was the scene with the policemen. It really made me scared because the actor was very good. When I was standing in front of him, I already felt that I am Lilet and not Sandy,” Talag said. 

 

The cast includes veteran theater actor John Arcilla and indie actress Marife Necesito. 

 

Meanwhile, veteran Dutch actress Johanna ter Steege played the role of Claire, a social worker who tried to help Lilet. According to Groen, the actress immediately accepted the offer to play the role and did her own research by talking to some prostitutes in Tondo.

 

 

Both Groen and executive producer Jamilla van der Hulst were impressed by the performance of the Filipino cast. 

 

“I was really proud to be involved with this movie and I was very impress by all the Filipinos who were helping us with the movie. I was impressed by how professional everybody was. For me it was really a nice first time working in the Philippines,” said Van der Hulst. 

 

Meanwhile, Groen praised the performance of Talag who was chosen among 200 girls who auditioned for the role. 

 

“Sandy has the combination of being angelic and being a rebel type and aggressive. She was really professional and from the beginning she knows how to do a long dialogue. Because she was very keen, she reads the line and in no time she has it on her head and then she can start acting,” said Groen.

 

Talag, on the other hand, felt very grateful for the opportunity to star in a film with a cause.

 

“I feel honored and blessed for having this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not all of the actresses and actors have the chance to experience these things that will make you feel proud for what you achieve and for the whole world to see what God gave to you,” said Talag.

 

Aside from the cast, scriptwriter Roy Iglesias was also involved in the development of the film. 

 

But despite having a good working experience with the cast and crew, Groen said that they were not able to avoid running into few corruption problems. 

 

“I love the country, I love the people. The only problem we have sometimes in the Philippines is corruption which has something to do with poverty. For instance you make a deal, then suddenly they see its white person is involved in it, next day they doubled the budget for location which is crazy,” Groen said, adding they had to change locations several times because of these situations.

 

 

Groen admitted that “Lilet Never Happened” touches on a very sensitive subject. They already had problems with parents who did not want their children to participate in the film, as well as schools and companies that do not want to be associated with the film.

 

However he noticed that there is already a change of consciousness when it comes to dealing with the topic of child prostitution unlike a few decades ago. 

 

“Nowadays there was a change that people are willing to talk about it. The only thing that is important is, this does not only happen in the Philippines. It is happening in so many countries in the world, that is why we want to bring this film out as much international as it could be,” explained Groen.

 

They are also not worried that the movie will encounter much criticism when it is distributed in the Philippines.

 

“It was a really difficult subject but it has to be told. We were able to show in a good way, in a beautiful movie what the problem is in the Philippines,” said Van der Hulst.

 

The film already won the Best Scenario Drama award in Los Angeles Film festival in 2009. They were hoping to enter the movie in other film festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale and Venice Film Festival. They are also looking for distributors in the Philippines. 

 

The producers are hoping to release the film in the Netherlands in the first quarter of this year. abs-cbnnews.com