Serbis Series: 46th New York Film Festival [Sept. 26 – Oct. 12, 2008] Director: Brillante Mendoza, Country: Philippines/France, Release: 2008, Runtime: 90
Raw and uncompromising, the seventh feature by Brillante Mendoza (Foster Child, ND/NF 2008), channeling both Fassbinder and John Waters, follows the travails of the Pineda family in the Filipino city of Angeles.
Bigamy, unwanted pregnancy, possible incest and bothersome skin irritations are all part of their daily challenges, but the real star of the show is an enormous, dilapidated movie theater that doubles as family business and living space. Clearly at one time a prestige establishment, the theater now runs porn double bills and serves as a meeting ground for hustlers of every conceivable persuasion.
Mendoza brilliantly captures here the sordid, fetid atmosphere, interweaving various family subplots with the comings and goings of customers, thieves and even a runaway goat while enveloping the viewer in a maelstrom of sound, noise and continuous motion.
A bold, challenging work from one of the recently energized Filipino cinema’s most interesting talents.
A Regent Releasing release.
Serbis contains some sexually graphic sequences.
Preceded by Maybe Tomorrow: Lingering memories of desire force the solitude and discontents of the professional world to the surface. Guilhem Amesland, France, 2008; 12m.
Brillante Mendoza
b. 1960, San Fernando, Philippines
2007 Slingshot
2007 Foster ChildND/NF
2007 Pantasya (as Dante Mendoza)
2006 The Professor
2006 Summer Heat
2005 The Masseur
