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A post shared by Lovi Poe (@lovipoe) on May 22, 2020 at 9:21pm PDT

MANILA – It was Lovi Poe’s first time to film a movie abroad and it was quite an experience for the actress.

In an interview with Tim Yap for his YouTube channel on Saturday, Poe said that her upcoming movie “Malaya” with Zanjoe Marudo was shot entirely in Italy with a small team.

“Ang hirap umikot sa mga paborito mong bansa na kailangan mo magtrabaho kasi you have to stay focused and everything. Shooting abroad is not a joke kasi wala ka sa comfort zone mo. Kumbaga kami, we were like walking around. Skeleton team talaga na bitbit 'yung cameras, bitbit ko 'yung mga damit ko. Nagbibihis ako sa kalsada,” she said.

Despite the challenges, Poe said it was rewarding when they finished it because “that’s when you realize that when you’re passionate about something, all these things, 'yung hirap, hindi nagma-matter 'yun.”

In the movie, Poe plays a girl who moves to Italy where her mom works as an overseas Filipino worker.

“Lumipad siya doon when she’s older already. She’s starting from scratch. She needs to learn how to speak Italian. She actually wants to do more than what her mom does for a living. She’s quite ambitious. And then she meets a Filipino guy who’s been living there since he was born,” she said.

“It is a love story about someone I love who can’t love me back. It’s years of waiting for that person to love me back. May pagkamartir 'yung character. It’s a beautiful movie,” she added.

Interestingly, Poe said she doesn’t know how the movie will end.

“Honestly hindi ko alam because we shot options for the ending. 'Yung director namin, she’s really on the spot na may babaguhin. It’s nice kasi we shot ilang options ng ending so kahit ako, first time ko makikita,” she said.

Produced by Dreamscape Entertainment and Sisu, “Malaya” was directed by Connie Macatuno, who also helmed the hit digital film “Glorious.”

The movie will become available on ABS-CBN’s streaming platform iWant on May 28.