A hard-hitting Filipino film about a family living in a porn movie theatre, "Serbis", enters the running for Cannes gold Sunday in a boost to the country's struggling independent cinema sector.

The title of the edgy drama by Brillante Mendoza refers to male prostitutes who ply their services to cinema-going clients.

It is the first Filipino film with a shot at the top prize since the late Lino Brocka's "Bayan Ko" (My Country) in 1984.

Mendoza, whose "Foster Child" screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at Cannes last year, acknowledged that his latest picture offered a tough look at Filipino life and had only dim commercial prospects at home.

"Moviegoers will go to a theatre to fantasise," Mendoza told AFP this month.

"They don't want to see poverty, to see reality. They don't want to see what they see every day."

His "Serbis" barely made it to the world's biggest cinema showcase. He shot the film in just 12 days and spent a month in post-production that only wrapped this month. He sent a rough cut to the selection committee late last month.

Also representing the Philippines is Raya Martin's "Now Showing", running in the Directors' Fortnight this year.

The picture -- almost five hours long -- is about a young girl growing up in Manila, dealing with a grandmother who used to be an actress and an aunt who sells pirated DVDs.

The recognition that comes with the invitation to Cannes has raised hopes of a rebirth for the struggling Philippines movie industry -- once one of the largest in the world but now hit by rampant piracy, high taxes and foreign imports.

The independent movie scene is largely overlooked in the Philippines, and both Mendoza and Martin say their works were financed largely by grants from foreign foundations.