Service

Serbis / Service, PH-FR 2008 colour 90    min.
dir:  Brillante Mendoza
pro: Didier Costet, Ferdinand Lapuz, Centerstage Productions, Swift Productions
sc: Armando Lao, Boots Agbayani Pastor
ph: Odyssey Flores
mus: Gian Gianan
ed: Claire Villa Real
cast: Gina Pareno, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin, Mercedes Cabral, Julio Diaz, Kristoffer King, Dan Alvaro, Roxanne Jordan
dis: Fortissimo Films

 

Morality has two sides-absolute and relative.
The Pineda family operates a rundown movie house in a city in the province which shows dated sexy double-feature films. The family has taken up actual residence in the old building as well. The matriarch Nanay Flor, her daughter Nayda, son-in-law Lando and adopted daughter Jewel take turns manning the ticket booth and the canteen. Her nephews Alan and Ronald are the billboard painter and projectionist respectively.

 

Nanay Flor had filed a bigamy case against her estranged husband and is attending the court hearing today when, after a number of years, the decision will be finally handed down. It is within this context that the story unfolds. As the rest of the members go about their daily activities, we get a glimpse of how they suffer and deal with each other’s sins and vices – relational, economic or sexual.

 

Preoccupied with their personal demons, the family is unmindful that inside the movie theater, another kind of business is going on between the serbis boys (male prostitutes) and the gay patrons.