Serbis

I saw this one yesterday, and was pretty impressed because it is one of the few competition films where I've been able to feel empathy for the characters. The film, by Brillante Mendozam, follows Nayda, a thirty-something mother, as she tries to keep her family, and the family business - a porn theatre - above water. Her efforts are usually thwarted by her male relatives, who fight, engage in prostitution, and cause chaos in general. She and her mother, the family matriarch whom she is beginning to replace, try to keep the family's morality intact, while their relatives are influenced by the illicit films they watch daily at the theatre.

The overwhelming city noise always present in the film really gives you a sense of the heat of both the Philippines, where it is set, and the theatre, which doubles as a brothel. The shaky hand-held long tracking shot cinematography worked well, except for the standard extreme close up (there seems to be one in each competition film) that they used to capture a boil on someone's ass. Unnecessary. I guess they thought the film needed an extra shot of gritty/gruesome to make it into the competition, so they threw that in. I can't think of any other reason, it was pretty gross. For the first time, I wasn't the only one in the theatre covering my eyes in disgust.

This was one of my favourite films so far, and I highly recommend it. Full review to follow in the Saint. The full press kit can be found here.