Film Festival 09 - Serbis
Serbis
Philippines/France 2008, 94m
Director: Brillante Mendoza
Festivals: Cannes (In Competition). Toronto, New York, Vancouver,
Pusan 2008; Rotterdam 2009
Brillante Mendoza has established himself as an astoundingly
prolific new phenomenon in Filipino cinema, serving raw, pumped up
social realism with exhibitionist verve. This gleefully lubricious
account of a hectic day in the life of a hetero porn palace is his
sixth feature in three years. The action ranges through the foyers,
stairways, derelict chambers and indoor/outdoor spaces of a
dilapidated former cinema, going by the name 'The Family Theatre'.
Now it's frequented by hustlers, cruising gay men and the odd stray
goat, but it's still a family affair, a frantically dysfunctional
one, overseen by a formidable matriarch who harbours enough
grievances to fuel a soap opera. She's a tower of wounded
authority, but she's not about to let go of this disreputable
retreat she and her clan call home. Mendoza, it's clear, knows the
feeling. - BG. "Serbis may be a raunch-fest, but it's also a
mind-trip - a raunch-fest with ideas." - J. Hoberman, Village
Voice
In Tagalog with English subtitles
www.serbis-themovie.com
