Ataul: For Rent

Ataul for Rent is a narrative social satire movie depicting the lives of the slum dwellers of “Kalyehong Walang Lagusan”, a very narrow, congested, miserable alley/compound in a typical squatter’s area. The story revolves around the lives of a live-in couple who owns a small-time funeral parlor renting out coffins of four different sizes, small, medium, large and extra small. Guido, the owner, doubles as the embalmer, while his partner, Pining, does the make-up and uses the same implements for both the dead and the living and is the jueteng kubrador of the neighborhood. Gossipers, gamblers, drunkards, drug addicts, ex-convicts, prostitutes, snatchers and other notorious characters regularly hang out in the funeral wake/s of the alley either drinking alcohol, in the gaming table, or just gossiping around. These personalities, having been born and growing up in this kind of environment, see themselves as having the right to abuse their own bodies and cause untold miseries to others.