Grief and hilarity in Two Funerals

MANILA, Philippines - Yes, there’s fun in funerals. Even in grief, Filipinos never lose our sense of humor. Laughter helps us deal with our loss.

But how would you feel if you discovered that the body of your dear departed had been unwittingly switched with a stranger’s corpse? Who would get a kick out of this cruel joke? It depends on which coffin has been delivered to which family.

This is the quirky premise that powers the unconventional road movie Two Funerals, an entry in the 2010 Cinemalaya Film Festival and Competition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Two Funerals will open tomorrow, July 10 until July 17. It will have a special gala night on July 15, 9 p.m. at the CCP Main Theater.

Grief and hilarity collide in Two Funerals, which is set during Holy Week at the height of the campaign season for the recent national elections.

Tessie Tomas stars as the outraged matriarch who undertakes a long journey from her native Tuguegarao, Cagayan to claim her daughter’s body in Matnog, Sorsogon where it was sent by mistake.

She is joined on the two-day cross Luzon trip by her daughter’s fiance played by Xian Lim, and they are escorted by a hearse carrying the stranger’s coffin. Their grief unravels slowly as they observe along the way the various Lenten rituals commemorating the Passion of Jesus Christ.

Little do they know that in Matnog, no mourning is taking place and it doesn’t matter if the wrong body has been delivered. While the funeral in Tuguegarao is awash in copious tears and heartfelt prayers, the one in Matnog turns into a bacchanal of gambling, singing and dancing.

Directed by Gil Portes from the screenplay of Eric Ramos, Two Funerals is one of the five entries in Cinemalaya’s Directors’ Showcase, a new category for directors with at least three feature films to credit.

With three decades of highly-decorated independent and mainstream filmmaking in his resume, direk Gil feels honored by the opportunity to join the Philippines’ most successful annual indie filmfest.

The concept for the film came to him two years after he had read a tabloid story about a funeral parlor switcheroo.

He realizes that Two Funerals is the kind of movie that only a Cinemalaya grant can make possible these days.