Edgy Philippine drama enters the race at Cannes
CANNES, France (AFP) — A hard-hitting Filipino film about a family living in a porn movie theatre, "Serbis", enters the running for Cannes gold Sunday in a boost to the country's struggling independent cinema sector.
The title of the edgy drama by Brillante Mendoza, which in English means "service" refers to male prostitutes who ply their services to the gay cinema-going clients.
It is the first Filipino film with a shot at the top prize since the late Lino Brocka's "Bayan Ko" (My Country) in 1984.
Mendoza, whose "Foster Child" screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at Cannes last year, acknowledged that his latest picture offered a tough look at Filipino life and had only dim commercial prospects at home.
"Moviegoers will go to a theatre to fantasise," Mendoza told AFP this month.
"They don't want to see poverty, to see reality. They don't want to see what they see every day."
His "Serbis" barely made it to the world's biggest cinema showcase. He shot the film in just 12 days and spent a month in post-production that only wrapped this month. He sent a rough cut to the selection committee late last month.
At a press conference Sunday, Mendoza said the movie-house set of the film was still operating today.
Studded with shots of male prostitutes servicing clients as a young boy looks on, blocked toilets, family tensions, a boil being popped with a bottle, or a man cutting his toe-nails, the movie almost comes across as a documentary on the seamy side of life.
"My style is very different from mainstream, more on emotion," Mendoza said. "I like my actors to add emotion to the characters they play, that they forget they're acting. It's more about portraying a character than acting for a camera."
Asked about his use of an at times almost deafening sound of street noise in the background, Mendoza said "the sound is really part of the story. This family operates a movie theatre right in the middle of the city where there is a lot of noise going on."
Also representing the Philippines is Raya Martin's "Now Showing", running in the Directors' Fortnight this year.
The picture -- almost five hours long -- is about a young girl growing up in Manila, dealing with a grandmother who used to be an actress and an aunt who sells pirated DVDs.
The recognition that comes with the invitation to Cannes has raised hopes of a rebirth for the struggling Philippines movie industry -- once one of the largest in the world but now hit by rampant piracy, high taxes and foreign imports.
The independent movie scene is largely overlooked in the Philippines, and both Mendoza and Martin say their works were financed largely by grants from foreign foundations.
