‘Granny Prostitutes:’ Sex workers and the stigma of aging

By Cristina DC Pastor

“Granny Prostitutes” –  titled “Lola Magdalena” in the Philippines – is the story of five maturing sex workers who live together in an old ‘bahay sa tisa,’ inherited by Bela (played Liza Lorena)  from her deceased paramour.

The semi-retired prostitutes also include Dalena (played by Gloria Diaz), Luningning (Pia Moran), Corazon (Perla Bautista) and Sunshine Cruz (Miriam), each with her own heartbreaking story.

Dalena, who part-times as a faith healer, a bogus one, appears to be the leader of the flock. She is fair-minded, helpful to others, and is everyone’s friend. We learn halfway through the movie that she is estranged from her daughter who despises her after she is pimped into prostitution. Dalena’s granddaughter though cares for her ‘lola’ and tries to bring the two women together despite their differences that appear unbridgeable. The granddaughter suffers from the Lupus condition.

Bela, the landlady, has a steady income from the women’s rent as her boarders. She is effectively retired from the trade. But there’s a catch with the house. She has no proof of ownership and lost track of  the lawyer who has the documents. Her lover’s son continues to harass her into leaving the house and returning the property he believes doesn’t belong to her.

Luningning is madly in love with Daks, a much younger man obsessed with male pageants but is not gay. She gifts him with a motorbike, which she pays in monthly installments, confident that with her generosity he will never leave her. He does.

Corazon appears to be in the early stages of dementia and lover’s name Ernesto is constantly in her  heart and her lips. One day, she goes off in search of Ernesto and gets lost. The two eventually find each other rekindling their romance of long ago, but his wife is able to track him down and bring him back home.

The still-beautiful and attractive Miriam is another tragic character. She is diagnosed with Stage 4 cervical cancer and has no means to buy medicine and pay for her chemo treatment while still supporting her family.

The film has all these storytelling trajectories which take it in different directions.  One that led the film to its very end was Dalena agreeing, albeit reluctantly,  to appear in a livestreamed porn so she can raise enough funds to pay for her granddaughter’s Lupus treatment. The so-called “cemetery scene” has Dalena dancing seductively while three teen boys pleasure themselves. The boys urge her to be bolder and reveal more – ‘Sayaw pa, lola’ —  but Dalena, embarrassed, demeaned and guilt-ridden at going down the livestream route is reduced to tears as she picks up the boys’ money thrown at her.

“Granny Prostitutes” shows no new insights on prostitution as a profession or as socio-cultural zeitgeist, except a dramatization — with touches of comedy – of the lives of prostitutes past their prime. One of the writers said some of the stories are fictional and some are loosely based on true-to-life narratives in Bocaue, considered the Olongapo or “sin city” of Bulacan province, about a cougar, an obsessive family breadwinner and a woman reimagining the passion of a love lost.

The women all gave stunning performances, especially Gloria Diaz and Pia Moran whose roles are richly textured. The cancer-stricken Miriam (Sunshine Cruz) has the mawkish parts, but the film with touches of lighthearted humor did not come across as pure drama.

The censors gave it a PG rating.

‘Granny Prostitutes’ is one of the Philippine films to screen at the New York Asian Film Festival from July 12–22.