“Getting To Work” — Nancy’s First Ride
In Puri for Rent, Nancy (Aiko Garcia) starts her story in a moment of collapse: her job gone, her rent due, her dignity at stake, and in between the last two, an indeterminate emotional toll. Hers is a raw, stark arc moving from financial desperation, through an unconventional arrangement with a disabled, wealthy man (Van Allen Ong) and a deeply emotional attachment that, for Nancy, begs the question: what is the price of survival and the choices that come with it, right within her grasp?
At the same time, the crew, working behind the camera, were also dealing with their own iteration of “job gone, rent due.” We were on a low-budget, indie film and had to rely on minimal sets and raw performances. Nancy’s character — making a deal that she never thought she would, while trying to keep her head just above water — is more than just fiction. It is a reflection of the actors and the crew, who in real life, were stretched thin and were trying to meet tight deadlines, with a reduced budget, and demanding a lot from themselves.
As arrangements take place between Nancy and the wealthy man, the emotional stakes for the film begins to change. Something which begins as purely transactional, develops into a psychosocial arrangement which involves the graduate of a law school. The intricacies of the students, downgrading, and the dynamics of school failure thereby losing any and all sense of worth. The story addresses the issues of the borderline between having an end to school and figuratively losing the drive to continue.
On the other hand, the production experienced analogous challenges. The budget commands to limit the number of set changes, directing the crew to take careful shot compositions, and having the actors perform multiple role-assigned duties. In designing the cabin set in which Nancy and the employer meet, a set of doors were built in a gedoozi style to create a sense of claustrophobia and in closed lit to mimic the cabin and establish claustrophobia. The story’s emotional engine was also served by the claustrophobic cabin. The crew was to keep claustrophobic conditions around Nancy. High temperatures, low light and tightly managed schedule.
“Falling or Rising?” – Nancy’s Transition
With the development of the narrative, Nancy begins feeling the unexpected — a connection, a form of love, or simply the recognition of her own worth. These arrangements begin to lose their dominance, the man’s fragility comes into focus, and the mask Nancy wears begins to slip. She comes to the realization that rent is not the only form of survival: there is a matter of who she wants to be, and who she wants to engage with, and what she deserves.
In real life, Aiko Garcia was said to carry the emotional weight of the role. There is a need for emotional vulnerability and bravery when there is a commitment to a film with long hours, a bare storyline, and little glamour. Van Allen Ong’s role involved similar demands. The crew had to navigate the moral grey of the tale: what to show, how to capture dignity, and the portrayal of poverty without exploitation.
Reports suggest that, in the course of the late-night shoots, there were times the crew had to go without food; there were times the actors had to help as lighting assistants; and, there was one time a broken down rental van led to the cancelation of the shoot for the day because there were no other funds for transport. The emotional arc of Nancy, surviving with dignity, balancing the resources, and the ambition echoed the cast and crew’s overlapping survival.
“Credit Rolls While the Rent Collectors Wait”
Nancy encounters the difficult choice of whether to continue riding upward on the elevator, or to step off. Is the emotional attachment something to embrace or something to defend against? The relationship described as employment progressively becomes more than a mere transactional bond as time passes.
For the crew on the ground, it was as if the same uncertainty were playing out for them. One assistant director reportedly stated, “On day 45 we still didn’t know if we’d get the budget to finish the final location shoot. Some nights I slept in the set van.” Health was another issue. A supporting actor collapsed during one outdoor shoot in the extreme heat, which led to a production hold. Those in the crew who were working in extreme cramped conditions were forced to rely on local vendor stalls for water. The juxtaposition of the ‘body-economics’ of the narrative, namely on Nancy, the rich man, and the space of the cabin, is aptly set against the very real bodily strain of the crew working on the film.
“After the Doors Open” — The Release and The Residuals
When Puri for Rent was finally released, it did so quietly online. Reviews were modest but did highlight the film’s tight-rope walk between empathy and ambition. However, for the cast and crew, completing what they started meant more than the box-office returns. As one producer supposedly remarked, “We’re not sure we’ll break even, but we’ll tell the story we needed to tell.”
For Nancy, the closing scene evokes prospective transformation: leaving the arrangement, the self, reclaiming the autonomy. For the cast and crew, the closure of the shoot, the after-credit-roll “party” in a cramped Manila room, and the postponed payment for the extras all represented infrastructural “transformation” in their lives: from invisible hopefuls to published filmmakers. The symmetry of the on-screen trajectory with the behind-the-scenes arc is stark and inescapable.
A Ride That Reflects Real Life
Puri For Rent is about much more than a woman renting her time, body, and emotions. It involves a whole film team renting their time, energy, and hope. The character arcs of Nancy and the wealthy man mirror the cast and crew and their stories of ambition, survival, and choice. The budgets and time limitations, along with the health risks, imposed on a production reflect the constraints Nancy faces while working within her arrangement. The confines of the cabin reflect in Nancy’s debt and the cramped sets that film crews work in for long hours, leaving little time for rest.
From Nancy, we begin asking ourselves what we would do if we had rent due tomorrow. From the crew, we begin to ask what we would do if the rental van broke down and we were on day 30. As the boundaries begin to blur the reel with real life and the film quietly becomes a blueprint for on-camera and off-camera struggle, dignity, and survival.