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MANILA -- Six years after her last movie “Etiquette for Mistresses,” Claudine Barretto is finally staging her movie comeback under the direction of Joel Lamangan.

Entitled “Deception,” the film has all the elements of a sensational drama mystery. It casts Barretto as a former actress convicted of parricide and arson who struggles to redeem herself after imprisonment.

Produced by Viva Films and Borracho Entertainment, the film will reunite her with her first boyfriend, Mark Anthony Fernandez.

“I've been raring to face the cameras once more, and work with none but the best actors and directors in the industry," Barretto told ABS-CBN News through her manager, Arnold Vegafria.

“I believe that the past struggles that we've all gone through collectively as a nation has not only strengthened our resilience and fortitude, but in my case, it has also tempered my acting with a great degree of depth and focus. It's definitely great to be back in my element!“ she added.

Lamangan, who is set to shoot the film beginning June 11 in Angeles and San Fernando, Pampanga, said he believes in the talent of Barretto, “a good actress who should be given another chance in showbiz.”

“We already had Claudine in mind when we developed the story of 'Deception,'" screenwriter-director Easy Ferrer told ABS-CBN News.

“Nakakausap ko siya as character development. I am so excited for Claudine because she’s been my idol way back in her teleserye and movie 'Mangarap Ka,'" he said, referring to the 1995 romance drama starring Barretto and Fernandez.

Ferrer said he is also grateful for his first-time collaboration with Lamangan.

The project was touch-and-go in the last few months with supposed differences between Barretto and her co-producer and lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, as well as adjustments in the scheduling of the cast amid the pandemic.

“But all’s well that ends well,” Topacio told ABS-CBN News in a virtual conference Thursday with actor Gerald Santos, who’s also cast in “Deception.” “Parang relasyon din kasi 'yan, may mga misunderstanding na kailangang ayusin. We have each other’s back!”

The “Deception” team will hurdle one last seeming obstacle in the movie production. Topacio and Vegafria hope that Barretto’s COVID tests this weekend will yield negative results after her quarantine. They disclosed that Barretto had to go through quarantine protocols after being exposed to a COVID-positive person recently.

Looking forward, Vegafria said Barretto is now more than ever ready for her close-ups in “Deception” and other comeback projects on television and two other movies in development.

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