Elijah Canlas as Kalel Fernandez, a 15-year old teenage boy who is
HIV positive. This is Canlas' first lead role. He originally auditioned for the role in 2014 but was not accepted – back then the character was envisioned as a mestizo who is a son of a Spanish friar[2] The director would eventually tap him to play the character in 2018.[3]
Eddie Garcia as George, Kalel's estranged father, who is also a Catholic priest.
Gabby Padilla as Sue, Kalel's girlfriend.
Production
Kalel, 15 was produced under
The IdeaFirst Company, Octobertrain Films, and Cignal Entertainment. with
Jun Robles Lana as the director.[4][5] Carlo Mendoza was the cinematographer.[4] The film reportedly took five years to make.[3]
The film under the working title Our Father was pitched by Lana at the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum in 2014. In 2019, the film was promoted as Son of God at the HAF Work-In-Progress Lab.[4][6]
The film made in
black-and-white, tackles about the
stigma of
HIV/AIDS, the attitude of Filipino youth on sex, and how the consequences of a dysfunctional family dynamic and "Christian double moral".[6]