Surprisingly, a Filipino film was among those competing for major awards. Indie filmmaker Brillante Mendoza's SERBIS (pictured, left) is the third Filipino feature to be included in the official competition (the late Lino Brocka's Jaguar and Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim competed in 1980 and 1984, respectively) Sadly, the movie was an outright critical disaster. Blame it on the irritating sound mixing and effects, pretentious dramatic arc, mixed acting from a first-rate cast (Gina Pareno, Jaclyn Jose, Julio Diaz), and gratitious nudity. Or at worst, the been-there, done-that narrative (see: Jacques Nolot's 2001 opus Porn Theater).
Other stinkers include Eric Koo's little-seen fantasy fable-set in the theater MY MAGIC, Atom Egoyan's cyber-set romance drama ADORATION, Wim Wenders' pointless ode to cinema feature THE PALERMO SHOOTING, Kornel Mondruczo's old fashioned Hungarian family drama DELTA (Fipresci Prize winner), Pablo Trapero's politically themed LEONERA (his first official competition entry), Walter Salles' (2004's The Motorcycle Diaries) and Daniela Thomas' (1998's Midnight) predictable family drama (a theme among the competition entries this year... gosh!) LINHA DE PASSE/LINES OF PASSAGE (winner of the Best Actress prize for Sandra Corvesconi), and Steven Soderbergh's ambitious, controversial CHE (a two part take on the Mexican figure featuring a Best Actor winning performance by Oscar winner (and contender) Benicio del Toro).
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